Monday, January 13, 1997
M. TENNIS:
Team wins in straight sets despite off-season uncertaintyBy Mark
Shapiro
Daily Bruin Staff
It’s really not supposed to work like this.
When a team spends an entire off-season retooling and then, in
its first competition of the year, fields six players in different
situations than the year before, they’re really not supposed to win
this easily.
The UCLA men’s tennis team apparently hadn’t been told this when
they took to the courts on Friday against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
in their season opener.
After only three hours at the Los Angeles Tennis Center, the
Bruins had tamed the Mustangs by a 7-0 count, and, to complement
that first doughnut, the Bruins didn’t drop a single set along the
way.
"We came out looking hungry and eager to play," UCLA head coach
Billy Martin said. "I wanted the guys to play at the level that
they are able to. We did that."
In this season’s inaugural match, the Bruins fielded, among
others, a freshman at number three, a brand new number one, two
transfers, and a pair of doubles teams that had not played together
in competition before.
New situations aside, after so many months of relative
inactivity, shouldn’t there be at least some signs of the long
layoff?
Apparently, not this time.
"I expected a lot of us to be rusty," said senior Eric Taino,
co-captain and UCLA’s number one singles player. "It turns out that
a lot of us played up to our level. It’s a good start.
"We don’t want to have too many matches like this, where we feel
like we’re definitely going to win, but it’s a good match to
have."
At the top of the heap was junior Matt Breen, who in his debut
at number two singles, surrendered only a pair of games en route to
a 6-0, 6-2 victory.
"I’m very comfortable with the way I played," Breen said. "It
was a good first match for me."
Also coming up with victories in their first matches for UCLA
were third-ranked freshman Kevin Kim, junior Alex Decret at number
four, and sophomore Jason Cook at number six. Returning stalwarts
Taino and Vincent Allegre also posted routine victories at number
one and number five singles, respectively.
The doubles, which had been something of a question mark coming
in, proved to be more of the same as the Bruins opened the match by
sweeping the doubles point.
The teams of Eric Lin and Kim, Taino and Jason Thompson, and
Breen and Cook all came together quite nicely in their first action
of the year.
"I feel comfortable with what we’ve done (in doubles) but it
still remains to be seen if these are the right tandems," Martin
said. "Right now, it’s looking pretty good."
BAHMAN FARAHDEL
Eric Taino won in straight sets.