Bruins favored to win over UCSB Gauchos

COURTNEY STEWART/Daily Bruin Sophomore Marcin
Matkowski and the rest of the Bruins face UC Santa Barbara
in the first round of the NCAA tournament Saturday at the L.A.
Tennis Center.

By Gilbert Quiñonez
Daily Bruin Contributor
[email protected]

The NCAA men’s tennis championships will begin while most
UCLA students are still sleeping. Saturday at 9 a.m., the Los
Angeles Tennis Center will host San Diego State and Hampton,
followed by UCLA vs. UC Santa Barbara. The winners will play on
Sunday at noon.

“I’m glad we don’t have to play at
nine,” No. 1 starter Tobias Clemens said. “We’d
have to wake up at 6:30 and we wouldn’t function very
well.”

Saturday’s noon match between No. 2 UCLA and unranked UCSB
is not expected to be a close one. The Gauchos, who got into the
tournament by winning the Big West Conference, already lost earlier
this year to the Bruins 6-1.

“We know if we play our tennis we’ll beat
them,” Clemens said. “We know what to
expect.”

Still, the favored Bruins aren’t looking ahead of the
Gauchos.

“If we’re not mentally prepared, and they’re
fired up, anything can happen,” UCLA head coach Billy Martin
said. “There are no bad teams in the tournament.”

“We just have to keep focused,” junior Rodrigo
Grilli said.

UCSB features one great player, Carlos Palencia. His win
accounted for UCSB’s lone point the last time they played
UCLA. However, UCLA features three players going to the NCAA
individual tournament, and Palencia’s win was against
Jean-Julien Rojer, a non-qualifier to the NCAA individuals.

The teams are so mismatched that Sunday’s second round is
already scheduled on UCLA athletics’ official Web site
““ no asterisks or anything. While the Bruins did beat SDSU
5-2 earlier this year, they know as much about Hampton as most UCLA
fans do.

“I know nothing about Hampton,” Martin said.

Hampton did win the MEAC with a 15-6 record. However, Martin put
it best: “You have to consider the strength of the
conferences.”

SDSU features the No. 3 doubles team in the country in Oliver
Meiberger and Ryan Redondo. Again, UCLA can matchup with that.
Rojer and Marcin Matkowski are the No. 1 doubles team in the
country.

The winner of the Sunday match will advance to the Sweet 16 at
Texas A&M the following Saturday.