May 17, 1998

LOS ANGELES - In the final match of the NCAA Men's Tennis Region VIII Championships at UCLA's Los Angeles Tennis Center today, No. 10 ranked UCLA defeated No. 19 Washington 4-2. With the victory, UCLA improves to 16-7 overall and advances to the NCAA Championships May 23-26 in Athens, Ga. at the University of Georgia. Washington finishes the season with a 15-7 overall record.

Today's victory avenged a 5-2 loss by UCLA at Washington earlier this season, in which the Huskies claimed their first ever win over the Bruins. However, unlike the last meeting between the two teams, Washington was the team that got off to an early start. The Huskies won on court No. 1 and UCLA took the match on court No. 3, causing the one point awarded for doubles to come down to court No.2. Washington's duo of Nicholas Quatrochi and Mark Woolley fought off three match points against UCLA's team of Brandon Kramer and Alex Decret, winning the match in a tie breaker 9-8 (5).

In singles action, UCLA's Brandon Kramer tied the score at one apiece when he quickly defeated Jeremy Berman 6-0, 6-1 on court No. 6. Next to finish was court No. 4 where Sasha Rampazzo put the Huskies up 2-1 with a 7-6 (5), 6-1 defeat of Jason Cook. Giving UCLA the lead for good was Vince Allegre, who defeated Robert Kendrick 7-5, 7-6 (2) in a hard fought battle on court No. 2. UCLA's Matt Breen vs. Andy Posavac on court No. 3 proved to be the deciding match as Breen, after dropping the first set 3-6, battled back to take the next two sets 6-2, 6-4 to give UCLA the 4-2 victory and the NCAA Region VIII title. When the match was halted, Washington's Eric Drew was battling back against UCLA's Jean-Noel Grinda on court No. 1. After dropping the first set 4-6 and down match point in the second, Drew managed to win the second set 7-5 in a tie breaker, and the score was tied at 2-2 at the time of suspension.

Here are the position-by-position results:
Doubles - (Washington wins doubles point)
No. 1  Eric Drew/Robert Kendrick (Wash) def. (32) Jean-Noel
        Grinda/Matt Breen (UCLA)  8-6
No. 2  Mark Woolley/Nicholas Quatrochi (Wash) def. Brandon
        Kramer/Alex Decret (UCLA)      9-8 (5)
No. 3  Jason Cook/Noah Newman (UCLA) def. Andy Posavac/Sasha Rampazzo
        (Wash)  8-2

Singles
No. 1  (22) Jean-Noel Grinda (UCLA) vs. (26) Eric Drew (Wash)
        Suspended
No. 2  (11) Vince Allegre (UCLA) def. (39) Robert Kendrick (Wash)  7-
        5, 7-6 (2)
No. 3  (34) Matt Breen (UCLA) def. Andy Posavac (Wash)  *3-6, 6-2, 6-4
No. 4  Sasha Rampazzo (Wash) def. (92) Jason Cook (UCLA)  7-6 (5), 6-1
No. 5  Alex Decret (UCLA) def. Marius Lunde (Wash)  6-3, 7-6 (5)
No. 6  Brandon Kramer (UCLA) def. Jeremy Berman (Wash)  6-0, 6-1

Final Team Score: UCLA 4 Washington 2

* Indicates Clinching Match