Pearce-Diller Upset Leach-Pawsat as UCLA Beats USC in Tennis

Brad Pearce and Ken Diller scored an upset victory over Rick Leach and Tim Pawsat to highlight UCLA’s 5-4 win over USC Saturday in a Pacific 10 Southern Division tennis match at USC. The matches between No. 2-ranked UCLA and No. 3-ranked USC lasted 5 1/2 hours.

With the teams tied, 3-3, after singles play, UCLA won two of the three doubles matches. Pearce and Diller, who had lost in straight sets to Leach and Pawsat in UCLA’s 5-4 win over USC on March 22, this time beat the nation’s No. 2-ranked doubles team, 7-5, 6-2.

Leach, the No. 1-ranked collegiate singles player in the country, won his match with Pearce, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. Leach took four straight games to rally from a 4-2 deficit in the third set.

UCLA (22-1 overall, 8-0 in the conference) leads the Southern Division and will play second-place Stanford (6-1) next Saturday at UCLA. The Trojans (19-6, 4-3) dropped out the race with the loss.