Tuesday, January 21, 1997
M. TENNIS:
After surprising loss to Boise State Friday, players fight back
to conquer Texas Longhorns MondayBy Mark Shapiro
Daily Bruin Staff
It certainly had been awhile since the UCLA men’s tennis team
found itself on the losing end of a regular season dual match, 26
straight to be exact, but on Friday against Boise State, the
second-ranked Bruins found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-3
score.
With that grim feeling swimming around in the back of their
minds, the Bruins took on seventh ranked Texas on Monday with the
hopes of rebounding back into the tennis hierarchy.
Rebound they did, as they clinched the victory by a score of 4-0
at press time.
"It was really nice to come back and have a win today," junior
Matt Breen said. "It’s still nice to show that the Bruins can come
back after a loss, especially after last year. It was interesting
to see how we’d come back."
UCLA (2-1) was in a difficult situation going into Friday’s
match. The Bruins had gone without a dual match for almost a week,
while trying to squeeze in practice time between rain showers.
Added to that was the hunger that the 24th ranked Mustangs brought,
having taken a 6-1 hiding from UCLA last year.
With UCLA up 3-2 and needing one more victory to tame the
Broncos, it was up to either Breen at number two singles or
freshman Kevin Kim at number three.
In short order, Kim fell in a gut wrenching third set tiebreak
to Albin Polonyi, while Breen fell 6-3 in the decisive third
set.
"We just weren’t up to par," Kim said. "We thought it would be
kind of an easy match. I didn’t know how good (Polonyi) was, he’s
from Boise State, you don’t really know who is going to come
out."
The Bruins rebounded in decisive fashion on Monday against the
Longhorns, taking the doubles point and sprinting out to a victor y
behind straight-set victories from Kim, Breen, and senior
co-captain Eric Taino. The remaining results were unavailable at
press time.
"This was good for our confidence, that’s about it," Taino said.
"It’s a long season and everyone knows we’re going to take some
losses, hopefully not too many. (Texas) was a good match to have
because they’re a good team."
KRIS FALLON
Kevin Kim rebounded with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Texas on Monday
after losing against Boise State Friday.