NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament : Bruins, Trojans and Waves Each Ranked in the Top Five

UCLA, USC and Pepperdine, all ranked in the top five in men’s college tennis, will compete in the NCAA tournament at Athens, Ga., starting Saturday and continuing through May 25.

UCLA, the Pacific 10 Southern Division champion, has already defeated seven of the 16 schools in the competition this season and has a 27-1 record. The Bruins are ranked second by the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn., behind Southern Methodist.

Sophomore Brad Pearce of Provo, Utah, the No. 2 singles player in the country with a 14-5 record in dual matches for the Bruins, has already announced that he will turn pro after this season.

Fourth-ranked USC (24-6), which tied Stanford for second place in the conference, features the No. 1 individual, Rick Leach. A junior from Laguna Hills, he is 30-2 overall and 28-1 in dual competition. He teams with senior Tim Pawsat to form the top doubles team in the country.

Pepperdine, No. 5 with a 19-7 record, is led by three-time All-American Kelly Jones of San Diego, the only senior on the team. He is ranked 11th, but last month beat Pearce and two days later came back to defeat Richard Bergh of Cal State Long Beach, the third-ranked singles player.

In doubles, Jones is attempting to become the first person since W.P. Knapp of Harvard in 1886 to win three straight titles with three different partners. Jones and Augustine Moreno have an 11-3 record and are the No. 3 team this year. Jones won the championship with Carlos DiLaura last season and with Jerome Jones (no relation) in 1984.

The Waves also have the Nos. 9 and 17 singles players in the country in sophomore Robby Weiss and junior Martin Laurendau, respectively. They are a combined 43-13 this season.

Teams from California--USC, UCLA, Pepperdine and Stanford--have won 33 of the 39 NCAA team titles, the Bruins leading the way with 15. Glenn Bassett of UCLA has been involved in all but one as either a player, assistant coach or head coach.