Somehow, some way, the UCLA men’s tennis team is the
co-Pac-10 champion.
But at one point over the weekend that result probably looked a
long way away. But after a gutsy 4-3 win against Stanford on
Friday, a 7-0 shellacking of California on Saturday, and
USC’s first conference loss of the season coming Saturday to
the Cardinal, the Bruins and Trojans sit together atop the Pac-10
heap.
And for their impressive finish, the Bruins have the bottom of
the lineup to thank.
“They wouldn’t be denied,” coach Billy Martin
said.
And they most certainly wouldn’t. Though UCLA (18-5, 6-1
Pac-10) uncharacteristically lost the doubles point Friday, and
also suffered losses at the usually automatic No. 1 and No. 2
positions, Chris Lam, Alberto Francis, Kris Kwinta and Philipp
Gruendler all came through with victories to lead UCLA to the team
victory.
Still, the Bruins lost the doubles point for the first time in
10 matches, Tobias Clemens lost to Sam Warburg for the second time
in as many weeks, and Luben Pampoulov suffered his first defeat in
five tries as a Bruin.
But then again, a win is a win. Martin feels like the strong
play from Courts 3 through 6 says a lot about the team.
“It shows if someone does play a bad match or two, we
still stand a good chance of winning matches,” Martin
said.
UCLA answered quickly in singles Friday after losing the doubles
point, as Alberto Francis registered a 6-4, 6-3 victory over James
Pade at No. 4, while Philipp Gruendler defeated Chris Rasmussen
6-1, 6-2 at No. 6. Gruendler is quickly establishing himself as one
of the best No. 6 players in the country, a player Martin feels he
can depend on for a team point in every match.
“Philipp has just been doing a great job,” Martin
said. “His play is certainly a confidence-builder for the
whole team.”
But after UCLA was leading 2-1, Clemens and Pampoulov suffered
defeats. Though Clemens snapped out of his losing streak Saturday
against Cal (7-16, 2-5), the Warburg loss was his fourth
consecutive at the time.
“Toby’s game just fits Warburg perfectly,”
Martin said.
Needing wins from Lam and Kwinta to snatch victory away from the
Cardinal (16-7, 5-2) in Stanford coach Dick Gould’s
second-to-last regular season match of his illustrious career, the
Bruin juniors came through. Lam bounced back from a rough first set
to hand Stanford’s James Wan his first dual match loss of the
season, 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.
“(Lam) hung in there and found a way to win,” Martin
said. Kwinta registered a three-set victory of his own, and the
Bruins escaped Palo Alto with a win by the closest of margins.
After defeating Cal, USC dropped a 5-2 decision to Stanford,
forcing them to share the conference title.