Friday, January 10, 1997
Tough waters loom ahead for Bruin swimmers
Today the ninth-ranked UCLA women’s swimming team will compete
in their last home meet of the year against the University of
Illinois, hoping to extend their undefeated record to 6-0.
So far the Bruins have dominated the competition in all of their
meets, including wins over sixth- and seventh-ranked Arizona and
Florida, respectively. However, Illinois may be the biggest threat
to the Bruins’ untarnished record.
When matched up swimmer-for-swimmer, the Bruin swimmers would
appear to dominate a majority of the events this weekend. Yet the
woman may face a 30-point handicap entering today’s meet, placing
them in an extremely vulnerable position.
"There was a conflict in the diving team’s and our (swimming
team’s) schedule," freshman swimmer Eliza Werth said. "We compete
together and they are currently in Texas at a diving meet so we
automatically lose those points."
UCLA thinks it can overcome the 30-point handicap to win, and
the team feels that their toughest challenge still looms in the
future. The Bruins will face Stanford, last year’s top-ranked team,
and fourth-ranked rival USC. To make matters worse, both meets will
be away.
According to junior Lara Potter, "our toughest meets will be
against Stanford and USC. Both have past Olympians on the team, and
also there is always the rivalry between us and USC."
Today’s meet is at 2 p.m. at the Men’s Gym Pool
Men’s tennis team can’t avoid a SLO start
The UCLA men’s tennis team kicks off its 1997 campaign when it
duels Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO) today at 1:30 p.m. at the Los
Angeles Tennis Center (LATC).
The Bruins, who finished last season with a 27-1 record, are in
pursuit of yet another NCAA crown after falling short in last
year’s final against Stanford. The Mustangs, who posted a 16-4
record last season, will arrive at the LATC as the first obstacle
in that chase.
The second-ranked Bruins start the season with three players
ranked in the top 100 in the nation in the most recent polls,
headed by junior Matt Breen at No. 16.
Senior Eric Taino, who will play No. 1 for UCLA, did not receive
a ranking because he was inactive during the fall, but he was
seeded 10th in the preseason polls.
Compiled from Daily Bruin Staff reports.