M. tennis drops heartbreaker to No. 1 Cardinal
Fourth-ranked Bruins drop lead to Stanford, rebound against
Cal
By Sarah Harrison
The UCLA men’s tennis team suffered a tough loss this weekend to
Stanford but came back to the courts determined to beat California.
UCLA’s 4-3 loss to the No. 1 team in the nation on Friday, did not
stop a 5-2 victory over its Northern California counterpart on
Saturday.
The Bruins had hoped to avenge the loss that they endured to
Stanford in the USTA/ITA indoor tournament last month in
Louisville, Ky.
Heath Montgomery was unable to play due to a tendonitis flare
up, so the Bruins were forced to change their line-up. In doubles,
Justin Gimelstob played with Loren Peters in the No. 2 spot,
instead of his usual partner, Eric Taino. Taino moved down to take
Montgomery’s place, playing in the No. 3 spot with Matt Breen.
"Heath couldn’t play doubles today," Taino said. "Since Loren
and Justin had beat (Stanford’s) No. 2 team in Louisville, (UCLA
head coach Billy Martin) changed the line-up around a little,
hoping to give us an advantage, at least, that was the plan."
Unfortunately, the plan didn’t seem to work, as the Bruins
played inconsistently and lost all three of the doubles matches,
giving Stanford their first point. However, the Bruins looked like
a completely different team when they came out to play their
singles matches.
"The doubles loss may have been a blessing in disguise," Peters
said during the match. "Now we have to be more intense and fight
harder, and that is exactly what we are doing."
Gimelstob in the No. 3 spot, Taino in the No. 2 spot, and Peters
playing on the sixth court all won their matches with relative
ease. The large crowd watching in the Los Angeles Tennis Center was
entertained with good rallies and perfect finishes. UCLA was up
3-1, with 3 more points up for grabs, making every match vital.
Robert Janecek was up in the third set, but ended up losing his
match to No. 6-ranked Jeff Salzenstein 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
"I expected it to be a really tough match," Salzenstein said. "I
was down a break in the third 3-2, and things really weren’t going
my way. I just tried to hang with it, fight hard and make him work
for every point. Luckily, I was able to turn it to my favor."
Soon after Janecek’s loss, Eric Lin lost to Grant Elliot in the
third set. All eyes then turned to court No. 4, where Jim Thomas
and Breen were playing the third set that would decide the match.
Breen and Thomas battled it out, both unsuccessfully attempting to
break the other’s serve. Their on-serve match led them to a
tie-breaker, which followed the trend of the match, with no one
going up more than one point. Finally, Thomas was able to convert
his 11-10 advantage into a win, which gave Stanford the final point
in the game.
"It is not very often that my matches count," Thomas said.
"Everyone usually gets their matches over with before my game is
done, so it is nice to have a match that counted and even nicer to
win."
UCLA turned it around on Saturday, beating California 5-2.
Montgomery returned to the courts, giving them their old
line-up. They won the No. 1 and 2 doubles, for the doubles point,
and Montgomery, Breen, Gimelstob and Taino won their singles
matches.
"It was disappointing to lose to Stanford," Martin said. "It
took a lot of character for the guys to suck it up, come out here
and win."