Mother Nature toughest opponent for UCLA

Monday, February 8, 1999

Mother Nature toughest opponent for UCLA

POSTPONED: Rainy weather stops Bruins temporarily; squad to play
USC, UCSD

By Dave Denicke

Daily Bruin Contributor

Some things simply aren’t meant to be. For the second time in
the span of 10 days, UCLA’s match against the Irvine Anteaters was
postponed due to rain.

The match, originally scheduled for Jan. 26, now seems rather
unlikely to happen.

Senior Jean-Noel Grinda said, "In 10 years, maybe. But
definitely not (soon)."

However, even without the Irvine match, the team has plenty of
match play coming up.

On Wednesday, UCLA will take on San Diego at home, and then host
arch rival USC on Friday.

The Toreros are ranked 73rd in the nation, and are undefeated in
match play thanks to a 4-3 victory over Pacific on Jan. 30.

Similar to the Anteaters and New Mexico before them, San Diego
has one of the better doubles tandems in the country.

Senior Rodolfo Rodriguez and junior German Maldonado combine to
form the No. 29 doubles tandem in the nation.

Look for UCLA to counter with senior Jason Cook and junior
Brandon Kramer, who are 5-0 as a team, including an impressive win
over New Mexico’s tenth-ranked pair of Pepe Caballero and Nicolas
Dubey on Tuesday.

"We feel comfortable playing with each other, and with the
atmosphere (of college tennis)," said Kramer, who is not only
undefeated in doubles, but has not lost a set while playing in the
fourth singles position.

Rodolfo Rodriguez also pulls double duty as UCSD’s top returning
singles player. All West Coast Conference as a junior, Rodriguez
went 13-9 at the top spot for San Diego. As a team, the Toreros
went 11-9 last year, but struggled against the Pac-10, failing to
win a match in four tries.

Looking ahead to Friday’s match against No. 15 USC will be
tempting to the Bruins, but freshman Zach Fleishman knows the
importance of playing one match at a time.

"Coach Martin has told us never to underestimate an opponent,"
said Fleishman.

"I’ve suffered from that in the past, so I take it very
seriously."

Regarding the upcoming schedule, head coach Billy Martin says,
"We need to keep building early in our year. We’ve got a big match
against ‘SC coming up on Friday, and then the indoors, which will
be a really big tournament for us."

First things first, however. Doubles play begins at 1:30 p.m. on
Wednesday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center – weather permitting, of
course.

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