Feb. 27, 2000
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Stanford topped UCLA 4-3 to capture the title today at the USTA/ITA National Men’s Team Indoor Championships hosted by the University of Kentucky at the Louisville Tennis Club.
Cardinal junior Alex Kim beat Jong-Min Lee 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-4) at No. 1 singles to break a 3-3 tie and clinch Stanford’s 11th title at this event. This is the 17th straight year that a school from the state of California has won this tournament.
The tournament was using an experimental format where match tie-breakers (first to 10, win by two) were being played in place of a third set in singles. Stanford won three of the four matches that were extended to match tie-breakers, including Kim’s clinching win. Geoff Abrams, Scotty Scott and Ali Ansari accounted for Stanford’s three other wins in singles.
“UCLA has a great team and I’m sure they’ll get back at us this year,” Stanford coach Dick Gould said. “We play them another two times and might even be meeting in the big one [NCAA final] down the road. So you can’t get too excited about it. But I’m very happy with the way we competed, the way we came back and the way we kept fighting. Especially when things weren’t going our way.”
Both teams were playing without their top players. Stanford’s third-ranked K.J. Hippensteel (mono) has not played a dual match this season. UCLA All-American Jean-Noel Grinda (back) has sat out 12 of UCLA’s 13 matches this season.
Either Stanford or UCLA has won this tournament every year since 1990. Stanford also won team indoor titles in ’92, ’94, ’95 and ’98. UCLA won titles in ’91, ’93, ’96, ’97 and ’99. These teams will meet at least two more times this season. UCLA visits Stanford on April 7 and the Cardinal goes to Los Angeles on April 22.
The host Wildcats were 1-2 in the tournament, losing to No. 3 Duke in the first round, defeating No. 52 New Mexico in consolation play and falling to No. 11 Southern Methodist in the 9th place match. The Cats finished tied with Illinois for 11th place in the tournament.
Kentucky (4-4) got great singles play from their top players throughout the tournament, but just fell short against some of the top players in the nation. Johan Hesoun at No. 3, Gustav Pousette at No. 4 and Edo Bawono at No. 5 each went 2-1 and even played tough in defeat. The match against SMU came down to Pousette’s match when he pulled out a second-set tie-break victory after dropping the first set. He was leading 8-7 in the match tie-breaker, but fell just short with an 11-9 loss.
UK’s top player Carlos Drada went 1-2 in the tournament, but both of his losses came in the match tie-breaker, losing 10-8 to No. 42 Doug Root of Duke and 10-7 to No. 20 Toby Hansson of SMU.
The Wildcats will take some time off before their next dual match action. They play host to both Indiana and Bowling Green on March 10 at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex when they will be looking for warm weather, hoping to play their first outdoor match of the season.
