University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Men's & Women's Tennis Headed to Two NCAA Championships
May 17, 1998
Los Angeles, CA - Both the UCLA men's and women's tennis teams have advanced to NCAA Championship Tournaments with victories in their respective regional finals today. The Bruin women's team started the day right by defeating Notre Dame 5-1 in the Midwest Regional final hosted at the University of Illinois. The Bruin men followed suit with a 4-2 victory over the University of Washington in the Region VIII Championship held at UCLA's Los Angeles Tennis Center this afternoon.
The Women's 1998 NCAA Championship begins May 21 with team play concluding on May 24 and will be hosted by Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Making its 17th NCAA Championship appearance and one of only two teams to compete in every NCAA tournament, UCLA enters this year's action with a 17-10 overall record and ranked No. 14 in the nation. Last year the Bruins tied for fifth in the NCAA Championships hosted at Stanford falling to Texas in the quarterfinals. The individual singles and doubles portion of the championships, which includes three Bruin singles players (Annica Cooper, Cristina Popescu and Elizabeth Schmidt), is May 25-29. The Bruins' lineup is the closest it has been to full strength all season. Amanda Basica, who was projected as the top-player entering the season, made her dual-match debut at the No. 5 singles and No. 3 doubles position in the regional after missing the entire spring with a shoulder injury. Last year's No. 1player, Kati Kocsis, has climbed to the No. 4 slot after sitting out the entire fall with an injury.
The Men's 1998 NCAA Championship runs May 23-26 in Athens, Ga. and will be hosted by the University of Georgia. The only team to play in every NCAA championship, UCLA brings a No. 10 national ranking and an overall record of 16-7 into this year's tournament. Last year the Bruins finished tied for third in the tournament hosted at UCLA, falling to Georgia in the semifinals. Individually, three singles players (Jean-Noel Grinda, Vince Allegre and Matt Breen) and a doubles team (Breen/Grinda) from UCLA will also compete for NCAA titles which will directly follow the team championships running May 27-31 at Georgia. With the top three all set to compete in the individual championships, the Bruins men's lineup is also finally at full strength as both No. 4 Jason Cook and No. 6 Brandon Kramer have recovered from injuries which kept them out a good portion of the spring season.