Men's tennis

Trojans end UCLA hex by rallying for 4-3 win

By Jennifer Javier
Staff Writer

Finally, a USC team has beat UCLA.
After disappointing losses to UCLA in most sports this year, the USC men's tennis team hoped to avoid that same fate. It came into the match last Friday against the Bruins having lost the past seven games to them.
In the end, the No. 10 Trojans squeaked out a thrilling 4-3 upset victory over the No. 2 Bruins. This is the first time since 1994 that USC has won against UCLA in men's tennis.
It took a valiant three-set effort from freshman Roman Kukal to seal the victory for the Trojans. Kukal, playing in the No. 4 spot, dropped his first set, 4-6, to UCLA's Alex Decret.
The second set was a close one as well, with mistakes determining who came out on top. With the score at 6-5 in favor of Kukal, Decret put a drop shot over the net, but Kukal got to it in time and slammed it behind Decret to win the set, 7-5.
Kukal was behind 2-3 in the final set, but rallied and scored three straight points to pull ahead. He made an ace to end the match and won, 6-3, to give the Trojans the victory.
"This was a long time coming," USC Head Coach Richard Leach said. "I told our team (before the game) that we could win this match, even though the Bruins were the favorites. It came down to the play of Fernando (Samayoa), a senior, and Roman (Kukal), a freshman. They both came through and gave everything they had."
With the victory, the Trojans remain undefeated (7-0 overall, 3-0 Pacific-10 Conference), and UCLA's record drops to 6-1, 2-1.
Things started out well for the Trojans, as they were able to sweep all three doubles matches. The No. 1 team of George Bastl and Kyle Spencer defeated UCLA's Vincent Allegre and Matt Breen, 8-6, and the No. 3 team of Kukal/Samayoa defeated Decret/ Brandon Kramer by the same score.
The No. 2 team of Patrick Gottesleben/Akram Zaman had an easier time defeating the Bruins' Jean-Noel Grinda/Chris Sands.
With the team scores tied at 2, Allegre came out with a close victory over the Trojans' No. 2 seed, Gottesleben, 6-3, 7-5, to put the Bruins up, 3-2.
The Trojans needed to win the final two matches, in which Samayoa and Kukal were playing, in order to capture the win.
Samayoa played a seesaw three-set match against Sands, winning the first set, 6-3, but dropping the second one, 1-6. In the final set, Samayoa got an early break and had three more to pull out a 6-2 victory.
When Samayoa finished his match, Kukal was down in the third set of his match. Samayoa's win tied the score at 3, setting up Kukal's clincher.