April 5, 2000
STANFORD, Calif. - In a battle of men's tennis programs that have won a combined total of 31 NCAA Team Championships, fourth-ranked Stanford University (15-0) hosts top-ranked UCLA (16-2) on Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
The match will be highlighted by the return to singles action of Stanford sophomore K.J. Hippensteel (Roanoke, VA/International Academy), who has been out since mid-January with a ruptured spleen brought on by a severe case of mononucleosis. Hippensteel, who was the No. 1 ranked singles player in the country at the time of the injury, has not played a singles match since Jan. 14. He fell out of both the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's singles and doubles rankings in March because of inactivity.
Hippensteel began the season in impressive fashion, beating six of the nation's top 40 players in straight sets to win the second leg of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Grand Slam - the ITA All-American Championships - on Oct. 14-18 in Austin, Texas. The unseeded Hippensteel, who is 7-1 on the season, beat the No. 9, 10, 12, 16, 27 and 36 players in the country en route to his first collegiate singles title.
He entered the winter season as the top-ranked player in Division I, and was the top-seed at the National Collegiate Tennis Classic. But Hippensteel ruptured his spleen in his first match at that event, and spent the next five days at a Los Angeles area hospital. He was off the court for two months before returning for light hitting in early March, and returned to doubles action on Mar. 28. Hippensteel, who won the NCAA Doubles Championship last year with Ryan Wolters, was ranked as high as No. 5 in doubles this season with freshman David Martin.Hippensteel and Martin won all three of their matches last week to improve to 10-1 on the year.
Hippensteel and the Cardinal will attempt to remain the only undefeated team in Division I men's tennis when they meet UCLA for the second time this season. Stanford, then ranked No. 2 in the nation, beat then-No. 7 UCLA 4-3 in the finals of the National Team Indoor Championships on Feb. 27 in Louisville, Kentucky. Stanford jumped into the No. 1 spot in the ITA Team Rankings after the National Team Indoor win, but dropped to No. 3 behind UCLA and Florida in the Mar. 22 poll (determined by average points-per-match computer formula).
Stanford and UCLA will also meet Apr. 22 in Westwood, and could potentially meet a fourth time at the NCAA Championships in Athens, Georgia on May 20-28.