UCLA: Club Tennis
No Excuses: We Love Everyone
February 9-10th, 2008 ----- UCLA Hosts Singles and Doubles Tournament
Saturday's Singles' Events, by Club Coach Mark Otten
Current and former club tennis players from UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, Loyola Marymount and Cal State Fullerton turned out on Saturday for a single-elimination, one-day singles tournament at L.A. Tennis Center. "I am excited, overwhelmed, intimidated and exhilarated with 85 entrants into our singles tournament", tournament director Anthony Horsley said Friday night before it began.
Players were greeted with beautiful 75-degree weather on Saturday. The full day of tennis began at 9:00am, and ended just after sunset with USC's Matt Black taking the Men's A singles crown. Black defeated UC San Diego grad Ryan Malawy in the semifinals, and then took the championship when Cal State Fullerton's Daniel Loney retired with leg cramps. "I haven't played tennis in three months," said Loney, who looked anything but rusty in knocking off UCLA's John Siefke in the quarterfinals and Mike Lee in the semis, before collapsing, quite literally, in the final.
Prior round of 16 action saw UCLA club team coach Mark Otten fall 6-0 to USC's Black, which signaled a warning of things to come. On the other half of the draw, UCLA's Lee defeated friend and frequent hitting partner Eric Radke, in quarterfinal play. "(Eric) didn't have his rackets," said Lee, taking no credit for his big win. UCLA's other quarterfinalist was Spencer Cohen, who fell to Malawy in a tight battle.
On the women's side, Allison Daniel made it a clean sweep for USC, defeating Tina Vuong of UC Irvine in the A division finals, 6-5(2). The women's B champion was Lindsay Smith of UCI, while Vadim Jucaud of UCLA took the men's B championship.
