April 15, 2012

LOS ANGELES - One day after downing No. 12 Cal, the sixth-ranked UCLA men's tennis team completed a weekend sweep of the Bay Area schools on Sunday, dispatching of No. 11 Stanford, 6-1 at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. With the win, UCLA improves to 20-2 on the season, giving the team 20 wins for the first time since 2009. More importantly, UCLA's victory sets up a huge meeting with top-ranked USC next Friday, as both teams enter the final match of the regular season with 6-0 records in Pac-12 play, meaning that the winner will earn the conference title outright. Stanford, which also lost to USC on Saturday, falls to 14-7 overall and 4-2 in the Pac-12 with the loss.

UCLA was never really tested in doubles on Sunday, winning all three matches by the same 8-3 score. Alex Brigham and Adrien Puget picked up their second top 5 win of the weekend when they beat fifth-ranked Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher at court No. 1. The Bruin duo was coming off an 8-3 win over third-ranked Nick Andrews and Chris Konigsfeldt the previous day.

The Bruins were equally as dominant in singles play, winning five of six matches in straight sets. UCLA lost just a total of three games at court Nos. 4-6, with Marcos Giron, Puget and Dennis Mkrtchian all cruising to wins. Mkrtchian turned in the best performance, downing Daniel Ho, 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 6 position.

Freshman Dennis Novikov and senior Nick Meister were also winners on Sunday. Stanford's lone point came at the No. 1 position, where Klahn downed UCLA's Clay Thompson, 6-4, 6-4.

UCLA and USC will square off at 3:00 p.m. next Friday at USC's Marks Tennis Stadium. Admission is free.

#6 UCLA 6, #11 Stanford 1
Apr 15, 2012 at Los Angeles, CA (Los Angeles Tennis Center)