UCLA
New Mexico
No. 5 UCLA Men's Tennis Defeats No. 56 New Mexico
June 21, 1999 | Men's Tennis
February 2, 1999
Los Angeles - The UCLA men's tennis team, tied for No. 5 in the national rankings, defeated No. 56 New Mexico, 6-1, today at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. With the victory UCLA improves to 4-1 on the season while New Mexico dropped to 2-3.
The Bruins really showed their depth today as head coach Billy Martin decided to give two players the day off allowing two others to make their first singles appearance of the season. Making his singles dual-match debut for UCLA was Marcin Rozpedski, a junior college transfer who has been competing regularly in doubles. Rozpedski made quick work of New Mexico sophomore Michael Polasek on court No. 5 as he dropped just one game en route to a 6-1, 6-0 victory. Although he was pushed to 7-5 in the first set, UCLA sophomore Noah Newman also claimed victory in his first dual-match singles outing of the season taking the second set 6-2 over UNM freshman John Kowalski in the No. 6 slot.
It was a battle of big left-handers on court No. 1 as UCLA sophomore Jean- Noel Grinda handled New Mexico's only senior Pepe Caballero 6-3, 6-4. The score was tight on court No. 2 where UCLA's only senior Jason Cook, who played at New Mexico as a freshman, won 7-5, 7-5 over UNM sophomore Nicolas Dubey.
The final two matches went the distance as UCLA sophomore Chris Sands rebounded from a 4-6 setback in the first to reverse the score 6-4 in the final two sets as he posted a win over UNM sophomore Takeshi Itoh on court No. 4. The only loss for the Bruins came on court No. 3 where junior Brandon Kramer, who is ranked No. 92 in the nation, could not hold off UNM junior Matthieu Amgwerd who rallied to win a third-set tiebreaker 10-8 and claimed the match 2-6, 6-4, 7- 6(8).
The match started right for UCLA which claimed the doubles point with victories in the top two positions. The UCLA duo of Cook and Kramer stepped up to the No. 1 slot to upset the No. 10 ranked team of Caballero and Dubey 8-3. On court No. 2, Grinda teamed with fellow lefty Sands to post an 8-2 win over Amgwerd and Itoh. New Mexico won in the No. 3 position as Polasek and Brent Salazar defeated UCLA's Newman and Rozpedski, 8-2.
UCLA continues its homestand on Friday, Feb. 5 in a reschedule of last week's rainout by hosting local foe UC Irvine at 1:30 p.m. Next week the Bruins continue the homestand hosting the University of San Diego on Tuesday and then crosstown rival USC on Friday.
Here are today's position-by-position results:
Doubles - (UCLA wins point)
No. 1 Jason Cook / Brandon Kramer (UCLA) def. Pepe Caballero / Nicolas Dubey (NM) 8-3
No. 2 Jean-Noel Grinda / Chris Sands (UCLA) def. Matthieu Amgwerd / Takeshi Itoh (NM) 8-2
No. 3 Michael Polasek / Brent Salazar (NM) def. Noah Newman / Marcin Rozpedski (UCLA) 8-2
Singles
No. 1 Jean-Noel Grinda (UCLA) def. Pepe Caballero (NM) 6-3, 6-4
No. 2 Jason Cook (UCLA) def. Nicolas Dubey (NM) 7-5, 7-5
No. 3 Matthieu Amgwerd (NM) def. (t92) Brandon Kramer (UCLA) 2-6, 6-4, 7-6
No. 4 Chris Sands (UCLA) def. Takeshi Itoh (NM) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
No. 5 Marcin Rozpedski (UCLA) def. Michael Polasek (NM) 6-1, 6-0
No. 6 Noah Newman (UCLA) def. John Kowalski (NM) 7-5, 6-2
Final Team Score: UCLA 6, New Mexico 1
