UCLA
Rice
No. 5 UCLA Defeats No. 49 Rice, 6-1
June 21, 1999 | Men's Tennis
March 1, 1999
LOS ANGELES - In its first action since winning the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championship, the UCLA men's tennis team registered a 6-1 win over Rice at the Los Angeles Tennis Center today. With the victory UCLA, which is tied for No. 5 in the national rankings, improves to 12-1 overall, while No. 49 ranked Rice dropped its second match of the weekend to fall to 6-5 overall.
UCLA made a clean sweep in doubles play as Jean-Noel Grinda and Zack Fleishman started the day off with an 8-2 win over Rice's Robert Collines and Prakash Venkataraman on court No. 2. The Bruins cinched the doubles point when the No. 3 team of Chris Sands and Marcin Rozpedski won 8-3 over the Owls' Fabion Giraud and Kevin Hargrove moments later. The Bruins prevailed 8-5 in the top- slot where the action pitted UCLA's No. 9 ranked duo of Jason Cook and Brandon Kramer against Rice's No. 18 ranked team of Efe Ustundag and Shane Stone.
UCLA took a commanding lead in singles play, claiming the first set on five courts and going on to win each of those matches. The lone highlight for Rice came in the No. 2 position where Collines upset UCLA's Fleishman 6-2, 6-4.
First to finish his singles match was UCLA's Kramer who sailed to a 6-0, 6-1 win over Venkataraman on court No. 4. Also quick to finish was court No. 6 where UCLA's Rozpedski defeated Ottmane Bennani-Smines 6-1, 6-1 to put UCLA ahead 3-0. The match clincher came from the No. 1 position where UCLA's 14th ranked Grinda defeated No. 17 Ustundag 6-3, 6-4. In the No. 5 position, Sands registered a 6- 4, 6-2 win over Rafeal Reyes, moments before Fleishman lost his match. UCLA's only senior, Cook finished the action by holding on for a 6-2, 7-5 win over Giraud.
The Bruins next action will be at cross-town rival USC on Wednesday, March 3 at 1:30 p.m. UCLA opens an eight-match homestand on March 12-13 hosting Arizona State and Arizona.
Here are today's position-by-position results:
Doubles - (UCLA wins point) No. 1 (9)Cook/Kramer (UCLA) def. (18) Ustundag/Stone (R) 8-5 No. 2 Grinda/Fleishman (UCLA) def. Collines/Venkataraman (R) 8-2 No. 3 Sands/Rozpedski (UCLA) def. Giraud/Hargrove (R) 8-3Singles No. 1 (14)Jean-Noel Grinda (UCLA) def. (17)Efe Ustundag (R) 6-3, 6-4 No. 2 Robert Collines (R) def. (t100) Zack Fleishman (UCLA) 6-2, 6-4 No. 3 Jason Cook (UCLA) def. Fabion Giraud (R) 6-2, 7-5 No. 4 (t92) Brandon Kramer (UCLA) def. Prakash Venkataraman (R) 6-0, 6-1 No. 5 Chris Sands (UCLA) def. Rafeal Reyes (R) 6-4, 6-2 No. 6 Marcin Rozpedski (UCLA) def. Ottmane Bennani-Smines 6-1, 6-1
Final Team Score: UCLA 6, Rice 1
