NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament : UCLA Fights to the Wire in 5-4 Loss to Georgia

The UCLA men’s tennis team made a quick exit--that is, if you call 5 hours 50 minutes quick--in almost the same fashion another Bruin team did a week ago.

Even though Athens is about 2,300 miles away from the L.A. Tennis Center, the same kind of elements were there for both sporting events: A large, somewhat noisy crowd; hot weather, and a close contest in which a Bruin team nearly upset the favorite.

In the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. women’s tennis tournament in Los Angeles, UCLA lost in the semifinals to top-seeded Florida, 5-4, as the deciding match came down to the third set at No. 2 doubles.

So, how exactly did the UCLA men go about losing their opener, 5-4, in the round of 16 to Georgia before 4,257 in the NCAA team tournament on the other side of the country Saturday?

The deciding point--once again--came at No. 2 doubles. And in a three-set match. Georgia’s T.J. Middleton and Trey Carter squandered a match point in the second set before defeating Buff Farrow and Robert Bierens, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, here at Henry Feild Stadium.

Although the Bulldogs (17-6) are ranked just one spot ahead of the Bruins (17-9), the home-court advantage made Georgia that much more of a favorite. And, unfortunately for the Bruins, the round-of-16 contest was a rematch of the 1987 final in which Georgia defeated UCLA, 5-1.

“Well, I thought it was the worst draw we could get,” said Georgia Coach Dan Magill. “I didn’t want any part of UCLA. Yeah, we didn’t want to play UCLA. And they probably didn’t want to play us.”

UCLA Coach Glenn Bassett claimed the draw didn’t bother him, saying he knew the Bruins were possibly going to meet the Bulldogs right away.

“I told Glenn about the draw,” said UC Irvine Coach Greg Patton. “And he didn’t flinch. I’ll give him that much.”

Said Bassett: “We weren’t surprised. It was a challenge. You don’t dread it, you go out there and look forward to it. We went out there and competed and didn’t get intimidated by the crowd. The crowd wasn’t real bad. A couple of times they yelled during a point in that last match but that was to be expected. They were rooting for Georgia. At UCLA, at that point in the match we’d probably be doing the same thing.”

The Bruins fared better than expected against the top half of the Bulldogs’ singles lineup. Farrow defeated Al Parker, 6-4, 7-6, at No. 1 singles, and Brian Garrow, ranked No. 40, rallied to defeat No. 16 Stephen Enochs of Georgia, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, at No. 2. Patrick Galbraith lost to Georgia’s Chris Garner, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 3.

Essentially, where the match turned for Georgia was at No. 4 singles. Robert Bierens had given UCLA a 3-1 lead after winning at No. 5, and Jason Netter seemed on his way to making it 4-1 when he took a 4-2 lead in the third set. However, Netter, a freshman from Beverly Hills, began to unravel, dropping four straight games in losing, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 to Carter.

“He’s really had a down period this last month,” Bassett said of Netter. “He’s lost a lot of three-set matches. He just hasn’t been doing it in the third.”

Georgia, which meets No. 2-seeded Lousiana State in today’s quarterfinals, received a straight-set win by Mike Morrison over Giora Payes to pull the Bulldogs even, 3-3, heading into the doubles.

After two doubles matches, it was: UCLA 4, Georgia 4. The No. 1 Georgia team of Parker and Garner beat Galbraith and Garrow, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, and UCLA’s Payes and Paul Scholtz defeated Francisco Montana and Jim Childs, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 3 doubles. Montana and Childs had been undefeated (10-0) at that position before Saturday.

Which left everything up to Carter and Middleton.

“He (Carter) and T.J. were the heroes, if you remember, last year when we upset Southern Cal (in the semifinals),” Magill said. “It was the last match and they played great doubles and they beat the best No. 2 team in the country by far, upsetting (Luke) Jensen and (Eric) Amend. And he (Carter) is a co-captain, a senior. He’s a great clutch player as you’ve seen.”

Tennis Notes

Until the down-to-the-wire match between UCLA and Georgia, one of the biggest highlights consisted of listening to what USC Coach Dick Leach didn’t say. Friday, after practice, Leach was approached by a reporter from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I have nothing to say,” Leach said, walking away. After the Trojans defeated Southwest Louisiana, 5-1, Saturday, Leach met with the local press for the first time after huddling with USC Athletic Director Mike McGee, associate athletic director Barbara Hedges and a member of the school’s sports information staff. In the interview, Leach stayed away from the topics that got him into trouble at last year’s tournament. Namely, his criticism of Georgia’s home-court advantage. Later, in the 1987 tournament, Leach and his son Rick got into a verbal confrontation with spectators, which led to a reprimand from the NCAA. This time, Leach wasn’t questioned about last year’s events and didn’t offer any opinions, preferring to stay bland and uncontroversial as Hedges stood nearby. Afterward, he seemed relieved, saying, “They didn’t end up roasting us.” . . . In today’s quarterfinals, Pepperdine, which defeated Tennessee, 5-1, will meet Michigan. USC will play UC Irvine, a 5-1 winner over Arizona State. Stanford will face Kentucky, and Georgia will meet LSU.