April 17, 1999
STANFORD, Calif. - The Stanford men's tennis team improved its record to 18-2 overall as the Cardinal defeated No. 1 UCLA, 4-3, today at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium. The Cardinal has now won 43 straight home dual matches, dating back to an April, 1996 loss to UCLA. Today's win snapped UCLA's 18-match winning streak, dating back to January 30. The Bruins are now 21-2 on the season.
The match was tight from beginning to end as the doubles matches took almost two hours to complete, with UCLA coming out with the critical doubles point. The Cardinal won the first doubles match at number one as Geoff Abrams and Alex Kim upset the 10th-ranked duo in the country, Jason Cook and Brandon Kramer, 8-2. At number three doubles, the Cardinal took an early 3-0 lead, but UCLA's pair rallied to win seven straight games. Stanford's Scotty Scott and David Hauser won the next four games to tie the match at 7-7. Eventually going into a tie break, UCLA's Martin Rozpedski and Chris Sands won the match, 9-8. While the number three match was in a tie break, at number two, the Cardinal was rebounding from a 4-1 deficit. This match was also forced into a tie breaker with the Bruins' Jean-Noel Grinda and Jong Min Lee winning the 9-8 victory.
With UCLA up 1-0, the teams moved into singles. UCLA clinched a second point at number one singles, before the Cardinal got two quick points at two and three. On the back courts, Rozpedski defeated Stanford's Ali Ansari, 6-3, 6-4, to put the Bruins up 3-2 in the dual match. On court four, Kim won the first set, but lost the second forcing a third set with Kramer. In the third set, after taking a 2-1 lead, Kim won three straight games and went on to win the match 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. With the dual match now tied at 3-3, it came down to the third set on court five. Stanford's Scott also won the first set, but dropped the second to UCLA's Lee. The duo was tied at 2-2 before Scott won three straight games to go up 5-2. Lee held serve at 5-3, allowing Scott to serve out the match to post a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win and give the Cardinal the upset.
Stanford will compete individually at the Pac-10 Championships next week and hope to return home for the NCAA Regionals on May 14 & 15. The regional pairings will be announced on May 4.
Stanford 4, UCLA 1
Singles
1. Jean-Noel Grinda (UCLA) d. Ryan Wolters (Stanford) 6-4, 6-4 2. Geoff Abrams (Stanford) d. Jason Cook (UCLA) 6-4, 6-2 3. K.J. Hippensteel (Stanford) d. Zach Fleischman (UCLA) 6-2, 7-6 4. Alex Kim (Stanford) d. Brandon Kramer (UCLA) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 5. Scotty Scott (Stanford) d. Jong Min Lee (UCLA) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 6. Martin Rozpedski (UCLA) d. Ali Ansari (Stanford) 6-3, 6-4
Doubles
1. Abrams/Kim (Stanford) d. Cook/Kramer (UCLA) 8-2 2. Grinda/Lee (UCLA) d. Wolters/Hippensteel (Stanford) 9-8 (5) 3. Rozpedski/Chris Sands (UCLA) d. Scott/David Hauser (Stanford) 9-8 (9)
Records: Stanford 18-2; UCLA 21-2