Bay Area schools skunk netters
Men’s, women’s teams lose matches to Cardinal, Bears
By Sarah Harrison
and Chris Isidro
PALO ALTO — It is every tennis player’s dream  a packed
tennis stadium, including season ticket holders, little kids poised
at the net ready to chase your balls, television cameras and
expensive programs with your picture in them.
Wait …
It’s not a dream, it’s Stanford tennis, and on Saturday, it
turned out to be UCLA’s worst nightmare. It all began with Jeff
Salzenstein knocking off UCLA’s Justin Gimelstob on court No. 1 and
ended with the Cardinal prevailing, 5-2.
Stanford, however, was only part two of UCLA’s nightmare in the
Bay Area.
On Friday, the fourth-ranked Bruins lost to No. 17 California
5-2. UCLA started off strong, winning all three of the doubles
matches to take the point, but then bad dreams turned into reality,
as all but Eric Taino lost their single matches.
Gimelstob played the No. 1 position this weekend for the first
time this season, bumping Robert Janecek into the No. 3 spot.
"(Friday), I was pretty nervous and uptight," Gimelstob said. "I
let playing the No. 1 singles get in the way (against Michael
Hill).
"(Saturday), I just focused on playing, and (Salzenstein) just
played a better match."
Stanford’s Scott Humphries defeated Eric Taino, Paul Goldstein
beat Robert Janecek and Eric Lin lost to the Cardinal’s Ricky
Becker. UCLA’s singles losses came after Stanford won the doubles
point with victories at the No. 1 and 3 positions.
"I was really pleased with my guys," Stanford coach Richard
Gould said. "We won the doubles, and I think that that was the
key."
* * *
The Bruin women kept their heads high and their shoulders up as
they huddled one final time in the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
Despite finishing the season with their sixth straight loss at the
hands of Stanford on Saturday, the Bruins were nothing but smiles
after a strong effort this weekend.
The 5-3 loss to the Cardinal came on the heels of a 5-4 defeat
to California on Friday. In both matches, UCLA had opportunities to
pull out victories, despite playing with a makeshift lineup.
"It was a tremendously gutsy performance when you go up against
teams that are playing their best tennis with the lineup we had to
put out there," UCLA head coach Bill Zaima said.
Susie Starrett and Stephanie Chi, two cogs in singles and
doubles, sat out this weekend, moving everybody at the bottom of
the lineup up two positions. Stanford, which entered this weekend
49-7 in the bottom half, swept the back courts after Sandra de
Silva closed out Diana Spadea in three sets.
On the front side, UCLA’s one-two punch knocked Stanford down
for the count. Seconds after No. 2 Keri Phebus finished Kim Shasby
6-2, 6-4 to go undefeated in dual matches this year, third-ranked
Jane Chi put away Katie Schukebir 6-2, 6-2.
All eyes fell upon No. 3 singles where Paige Yaroshuk took on
Stanford’s Ania Bleszynski. The Cardinal freshman took the first
set on the strength of her mesmerizing forehand.
The second set went to a tiebreak after Bleszynski broke serve
three games earlier. Though the freshman appeared tight, Yaroshuk
could not cash in, missing three backhand approaches in the net,
the last of which gave Stanford a 4-2 lead going into doubles.
"I had a lot of chances, especially inside the service line with
my backhand, that I should have cranked for winners," Yaroshuk
said. "All day I was struggling with my backhand approach which is
unusual because I don’t have trouble with it.
"I kept going for it," she added. "I wasn’t going to sit back
there and push the shots in. I’m not going to play not to
lose."
All hope seemed lost when Spadea and Anicia Mendez were down 4-1
in the second set against Shasby and Emily Burt. But the Cardinal
tandem let up and the Bruins took full advantage, breaking twice to
force the tiebreak.
The crowd, glowing red after a day in the sun, made noise after
Stanford was overruled on a line call to cut the Cardinal lead to
5-4. But then Shasby came up with an ace, then attacked Mendez’s
second serve for a winner to give Stanford a 5-3 win.