UCLA gets No. 6 tournament seed
By Greg Schain
April 30, 2003 9:00 p.m.
Men’s tennis coach Billy Martin’s intense,
uninhibited concentration on the television screen in his office
Wednesday signified one thing.
No, he wasn’t watching Baywatch.
In fact, the men’s tennis NCAA Championship draw was
announced live Wednesday on ESPNews.
UCLA (20-3) was granted the sixth seed in the tournament. Martin
was expecting to be seeded fifth, but he wasn’t all that
disappointed.
“I don’t think it’s a horrible draw by any
means,” Martin said.
Assuming UCLA gets past lowly Wichita State and either USC or
UCSB in the regional round ““ which UCLA hosts at the Los
Angeles Tennis Center on May 10-11 ““ the Bruins will meet No.
11 Minnesota (20-5) in the first round at Athens, Georgia.
And then if they get to the quarterfinals, they will likely meet
No. 3 Florida, who beat UCLA 4-1 during the National Indoor
Championships in February.
“We would be eager to play Florida again,” said
junior Tobias Clemens. “We want to prove that we are really
the better team.”
“We just played so horribly against Florida,” Martin
added.
But Martin’s main reason for satisfaction, despite the
unexpectedly low seed, is that the Bruins avoid powerhouses No. 2
Baylor (25-1) and No. 1 Illinois (26-0) until the semifinals and
finals, respectively, if they get that far.
“I’ve always thought Illinois and Baylor are the two
teams you have to beat to win the championship,” Martin said.
“But it’s good we don’t have to beat both just to
get to the finals.”
Pac-10 champion Stanford (21-3) was given the fifth seed, with
Cal (18-4), who finished third in the conference behind both
Stanford and UCLA, getting the fourth seed.
“For Cal to be ahead of Stanford is a real shocker,”
Martin said.
