Thursday, April 25, 1996
Top-ranked Bruins concentrating on individual successBy Mark
Shapiro
Daily Bruin Staff
With an undefeated regular season in the books, a first for the
UCLA men’s tennis team since 1975, the top-ranked Bruins are off to
Ojai for the Pac-10 Championships.
Because the Bruins will not be competing as a team, this
tournament will not affect the team’s ranking, but with this high
quality draw, individual rankings and bragging rights going into
the NCAAs are there for the taking.
"This tournament is more personal," UCLA head coach Billy Martin
said. "If they want to get up for it, it’s up to them. I’m not
going to push them because everyone has worked so hard this
season."
There will be four Bruins competing in the men’s singles draw of
32, but notably absent will be sophomore Justin Gimelstob, who is
ranked third in the country but will take this weekend off.
Gimelstob added a series of pro tournaments to the already grueling
collegiate schedule this season, sacrificing the few off-days the
team has had.
"We both felt that he needed to rest," Martin said. "This will
be his last chance to take a few days off and then he can have a
good three weeks."
In probably the most exciting first round match, senior Heath
Montgomery, whose play has steadily improved over the past three
weeks, will face No. 2 Cecil Mamiit from USC.
Joining Montgomery in the bottom half of the draw is senior
Srdjan Muskatirovic, who will play Carlos Navarro from Oregon, who
represents the first milestone on what could be a clear path to the
semifinals with no players ranked above the Bruin senior.
Sophomore Matt Breen and junior Eric Taino reside in the top
portion of the draw. Breen has a tough first-round match against
Adam Peterson, who plays number two for USC, while Taino will face
Richard Rosen from Washington. Their path to the finals is blocked
by top seed Jeff Salzenstein, who Breen could encounter in the
quarterfinals.
The Bruins will also field two teams in the doubles competition.
Eric Lin and Jason Thompson will face Yuk Tapuzkoviz and Chris
Jenkins from Arizona in the first round while Breen and Taino will
face another pair of Wildcats in the form of Tom Haugland and
Hendrik Wagner.
* * *
In last season’s NCAA championships, the Bruins faced Stanford
in the semifinals. The two squads had faced each other three times
previously that season with the Cardinal taking all three. The
NCAAs were no different as Stanford took its fourth victory over
the Bruins on the way to the championship.
This season, however, the tables have been turned, for now it is
the Bruins who have taken three straight from the Cardinal going
into the championship. But don’t pen UCLA as champions quite
yet.
"I don’t think it means anything," Muskatirovic said."They’re
going to come out every single time and give it their best. They’ve
been so good over the years, they’re going to come out with more
fire."
Dick Gould, Stanford’s head coach and architect of last season’s
undefeated run by the Cardinal, is of the same opinion. He is
actually of the opinion that too many regular season victories can
have a negative effect.
"Each match is an entity in itself," Gould said. "It can almost
work the other way. You have a really good goal going and you’ve
got to be careful that you work hard to keep it going. It’s a very
fine line and you never know what’s going to happen with that."
Mental edge or no, the results that the Bruins have posted this
season have given them a volume of confidence that has been missing
in previous years
"They’ve stuck it to us for two or three years and we hadn’t
beaten them at Stanford in 10 or 12 years," Martin said. "This will
really give us some momentum. They’re still going to be really
tough and we have to be focused to beat them."