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Monday, April 1, 1996

By Mark Shapiro

Daily Bruin Staff

The UCLA men's tennis team was up to its usual tricks over break, as it maintained its death grip on the No. 1 spot in the nation with six weeks to go before the NCAA championships. The Bruins squeaked past seventh-ranked Pepperdine after posting decisive victories over Harvard and No. 6 USC.

On Saturday, the Bruins traveled to Malibu to battle Pepperdine and their vaunted home court win streak dating back several years. Early on, it looked as if the winning streak would remain intact.

The Bruins faltered in doubles play and quickly found themselves down a point as the team of sophomore Justin Gimelstob and senior Srdjan Muskatirovic lost 9-8, and the No. 2 and 3 teams fell by scores of 8-6 and 8-4, respectively.

At the top spot, Gimelstob suffered his first defeat of the season as he fell to Simon Aspelin, who lost in two previous meetings to Gimelstob, 6-2, 6-4. Junior Eric Taino, normally a reliable victor at the third position, was toppled by Chris Hill 1-6, 7-6, 6-3. Muskatirovic supplied the only victory at the top of the ladder with his 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 comeback victory over Michael Jessup.

The bottom of the ladder was left with the task of sweeping all three matches to keep UCLA's perfect record intact. Come through they did as sophomore Matt Breen, senior Heath Montgomery and freshman Vincent Allegre all scored victories.

Breen knocked off Brad Sceney 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 at the fourth spot, Montgomery cleaned up Troy Budgen 6-2, 6-3, and Allegre remained the last undefeated Bruin as he defeated Masahide Sakamoto 6-4, 6-4 to give the Bruins the 4-3 victory.

On Thursday, in one of their more impressive shows of the season, the Bruins stomped the 12th-ranked Crimson by a 7-0 count, giving up only one set in the process.

During dead week, the Bruins traveled across town to face sixth-ranked USC. The Bruins came away victorious in the season's first installment of the rivalry. The highlight of the match was Gimelstob's three-set victory over freshman Cecil Mamitt, the No. 1 player in the nation.Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu