NCAA Men’s Championship : USC, UCLA in Semifinals; CSLB Loses

No. 1-seeded USC, led by Rick Leach and Scott Melville, advanced to the semifinals of the 103rd annual NCAA tennis championships Sunday with a 5-3 victory over No. 8 LSU, but No. 2 Cal State Long Beach was beaten by No. 10 Tennessee, 5-3.

In other quarterfinal matches at the University of Georgia’s Henry Feild Stadium, the host Bulldogs, seeded No. 4, defeated No. 5 Pepperdine, 5-3, and No. 6 UCLA downed No. 14 Miami of Florida, 5-1.

Tennessee will meet UCLA today, followed by USC vs. Georgia.

USC and LSU split the six singles matches, but the Trojans’ No. 1 doubles team of Leach and Melville beat Carlos Homedes and Billy Uribe, 6-3, 6-4, and the No. 2 team of Luke Jensen and Eric Amend defeated Felix Barrientos and Jeff Brown by the same score to clinch the match.

Tennessee won four of six singles matches against Long Beach and clinched the victory when the No. 1 doubles team of Shelby Cannon and Byron Talbot downed Pat Crow and Kevin Gillette, 7-6, 6-3.

Georgia also won four of the six singles matches and then eliminated Pepperdine when the Bulldogs’ No. 3 doubles team of Jim Childs and Philip Johnson defeated Grant Saacks and David Kelmbith, 6-3, 7-5.

UCLA had little trouble with Miami, winning five of the six singles matches, clinching it when Brian Garrow defeated Lorne Goldberg, 6-3, 6-1, at No. 6 singles.