January 25, 1999

USC MEN'S & WOMEN'S TENNIS WEEKLY NOTES

THIS WEEK

MEN - Tuesday (Jan. 26) vs. BYU, Marks Tennis Stadium, 1:30 p.m.; Friday (Jan. 29) at Arizona State, 1:30 p.m.; Saturday (Jan. 30) at Arizona, Noon.

WOMEN - Friday (Jan. 29) vs. Arizona State, Marks Tennis Stadium, 1:30 p.m.; Saturday (Jan. 30) vs. Arizona, Marks Tennis Stadium, Noon.

USC MEN

THE TEAM - The Trojans (2-0), under 20th-year head coach Dick Leach, opened the season with a pair of easy wins over UC Santa Barbara and UNLV. After a home non-conference match with BYU, USC opens the Pacific-10 Conference season with a visit to Arizona State and Arizona. After losing six of nine letterwinners from the 1998 team, USC has a very young lineup, starting three freshmen and two sophomores.

RANKINGS - USC is No. 15 in the fall ITA rankings. BYU is No. 44, Arizona State is No. 17 and Arizona is tied for No. 45. In the individual rankings, USC's Andrew Park is tied for No. 48.

NOTES - USC won 11 of 12 singles matches in its first two dual matches ... Roman Kukal reached the final of the National Collegiate Tennis Classic in January before falling ... The doubles team of Kukal and Ryan Moore made it to the championship match of the Southern California Tennis Association tournament in November before losing.

FAB FOUR - In what Leach hails as one of his best recruiting classes ever, four of the Trojans' six starters are newcomers to the squad in 1999. There's the highly touted freshman trio of Ryan Moore, Andrew Park and Nicholas Rainey, and a transfer from North Carolina in Gregg Hill.

USC MEN'S PROBABLE LINEUP

Singles: #1: Patrick Gottesleben (2-0), Jr., Waldorf, Germany; #2: Roman Kukal (9-4), So., Bratislova, Slovakia; #3: Andrew Park (8-3), Fr., San Marino, Calif.; #4: Ryan Moore (8-3), Fr., Fullerton, Calif.; #5: Nicholas Rainey (4-1), Fr., Mercer Island, Wash.; #6: Gregg Hill (1-2), So., Boca Raton, Fla.

Doubles: #1: Gottesleben/Kukal (1-1); #2: Moore/Rainey (5-1); #3: Hill/Park (2-0)

USC WOMEN

THE TEAM - The Women of Troy (2-0), under fourth-year head coach Richard Gallien and coming off a pair of 9-0 victories, get an early start to Pacific-10 Conference play as they host Arizona State and Arizona this weekend. This is one of USCs most experienced teams in years, as five of the six players have at least two years of Division I play under their belts.

RANKINGS - USC is No. 13 in the fall ITA rankings. Arizona State is No. 12 and Arizona is No. 24. In the individual rankings, USC's Ditta Huber is No. 13, Kara Warkentin is tied for No. 48, Jacqui Boyd is tied for No. 83 and the doubles team of Huber and Warkentin is No. 30.

NOTES - A victory against Arizona State would give USC its first 3-0 start since 1993, when USC began the season 8-0 ... When USC opened the season with 9-0 victories over UC Irvine and Loyola Marymount, it was the first time USC had posted back-to-back shutouts since 1993.

DITTA HUBER - Huber is in her third season playing at No. 1 singles for USC. In November, she won the ITA Regional Tournament at UC Irvine and will go on to play in the ITA National Championship in Dallas on Feb. 4-7. Her tournament win lifted her to No. 13 in the national rankings.

USC WOMEN'S PROBABLE LINEUP

Singles: #1: Ditta Huber (12-3), Sr., San Diego, Calif.; #2: Kara Warkentin (17-5), Jr., Santa Barbara, Calif.; #3: Jacqui Boyd (9-4), Jr., Cape Town, South Africa; #4: Veronika Safarova (3-2), Jr., Brno, Czech Republic; #5: Krissy Hamilton-Heinberg (5-3), Fr., Agoura Hills, Calif.; #6: Karolina Bakalarova (3-1), Sr., Trebic, Czech Republic;

Doubles: #1: Huber/Warkentin (6-2); #2: Bakalarova/Safarova (3-1); #3: Boyd/Hamilton-Heinberg (3-1)