Tuesday, February 10, 1998
Only thing that can stop UCLA
is El Nino’s rain
– too bad it did
M.TENNIS No. 2 Bruins can beat any opponent except Mother
Nature
By Stephanie Chan
Daily Bruin Contributor
El Nino. Everyone’s sick of hearing about it. Nobody really
knows if it’s real. Anyone can turn it into an excuse.
If UCLA’s men’s tennis match against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
today is branded "rained out," then blame El Nino.
Both UCLA’s match against Pepperdine and Cal Poly SLO’s match
against UC Santa Barbara have been rained out.
Last year’s match between the Bruins and Mustangs featured a
UCLA sweep of all dimensions. In a no-mercy match, the Bruins did
not even give up a set to the Mustangs in their 7-0 victory.
Matt Breen, Alex Decret and Vince Allegre all pocketed bagel
sets in their two-set victories in the 1997 matchup.
Breen defeated CPSLO’s Tony Piccuta 6-0, 6-2. Decret beat
CPSLO’s Brett Masi 6-3, 6-0. Allegre clobbered CPSLO’s Jason Meyers
6-2, 6-0.
Jason Cook also emerged with a straight two-set victory,
defeating CPSLO’s Nadere Izadi 6-2, 6-1.
UCLA’s Allegre and Jean-Noel Grinda escaped the rain and headed
for Dallas this past week for the Rolex Intercollegiate Tennis
Championships. Both of them returned with early round losses.
Allegre lost in the second round to Duke’s Doug Root 6-4, 6-1.
Grinda lost in consolation to Mississippi’s Martin Sjoqvist 6-3,
7-6.
At the same time UCLA’s Brandon Kramer, Chris Sands and Noah
Newman were fighting the rain at the San Diego Intercollegiates
Feb. 6-8.
After rained out matches on Friday, Kramer, Sands and Newman all
reached the semifinals in their flights.
Then El Nino struck again, causing the finals to be rained
out.
The No. 2 Bruins enter today’s match undefeated in 1998 season
play and undefeated in dual match play against CPSLO since 1967
(8-0).