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Mixed fortunes for tennis at Pac-10s

Three UCLA men advance on day one, while women's Phebus moves on

By Sarah Harrison

and Chris Isidro

OJAI, Calif. -- Picket fences, church bells ... and the sound of squeaking tennis shoes? A gas station attendant in town gave these simple directions to the Pac-10 Tournament: "Honey, tennis is everywhere."

This sleepy little community called Ojai was awakened on Thursday as the opening rounds of singles were contested all across town. At Libby Park in downtown Ojai, three of the five UCLA men survived the first round including Robert Janecek and Eric Taino.

Heath Montgomery turned in perhaps the best UCLA performance of the day in a 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 loss to No. 25 Scott Humphries of Stanford. The unranked Bruin applied the pressure throughout, but the Cardinal freshman took the key points with the match in the balance.

"I played a very good match," Montgomery said. "Unfortunately, I just wasn't able to pull it out."

It took nearly three hours for USC's Manuel Ramirez to knock off Bruin freshman Matthew Breen 6-3, 2-6, 6-2. Breen could not reverse his fortunes against Ramirez, falling in much the same way as their previous match up.

"The first set was similar to what happened earlier," Breen said. "I got up early then just gave it to him."

Justin Gimelstob coasted in his first-round match against Tsolak Gevorkian. Despite Gimelstob's mental lull in the second set, Gevorkian needed a nervous breakdown across the net to stave off his 6-1, 6-4 defeat.

"I wanted to get off the court and get ready for my next match," Gimelstob said. "So my concentration slipped a little."

* * *

Up the road at the Ojai Valley Inn, only one of UCLA's four entries survived the tournament's first day. Second-ranked Keri Phebus, the top seed this weekend, coasted into the third round with straight-set victories against Arizona State's Angela Lansdorp and USC's Pam Trump.

Phebus played with bandages around her right elbow and knee to cover stitches sewn after a motor scooter accident on campus earlier in the week. Though the injuries did not affect the junior's play on Thursday, Phebus's status for the remainder of the tourney is still uncertain.

"(Phebus) told me against Trump that she was hurting and that she couldn't move very well," UCLA women's head coach Bill Zaima said. "She doesn't need to beat people here and I'm only going to let her play if she feels she can win the tournament."

Things also seemed to be going well for Paige Yaroshuk at Ojai. After a straight-set win her opening match, the Bruin captain continued her good fortune in the second round, winning the first set 6-1 over Reka Cseresnyes.

"If Paige gets this match, I think it looks very good for us to get into the NCAA tournament," Zaima said after the first set.

But momentum is such a mercurial commodity in tennis, and when it shifted against Yaroshuk, her one set lead instantly vanished. Cseresnyes reversed the tide in the second and did not look back.

Instead of beginning an NCAA tournament run, Yaroshuk dropped the sixth match in the last eight 6-1, 7-5, 6-3.

Diana Spadea played well on Thursday, but not well enough to see action on Friday. She romped past Amy Chiminello of Stanford 6-0, 6-2 to avenge an earlier defeat this season before drawing second-seeded Pam Nelson of Cal. Nelson proved to be too much for the Bruin sophomore and earned a trip to the quarters 6-0, 6-2.

The draw was not so kind to Bruin junior Anicia Mendez either. After breezing by Sayaka Kimura 7-6, 6-0 in her first match, Mendez took on fourth-seed Vicki Maes of Arizona. Mendez held tough early and dug up a lot of difficult Maes offerings. But Mendez's inability to attack the Wildcat's second serve proved costly in her 6-4, 6-4 loss.

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