NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament : For First Time, LSU Reaches Finals and Takes On Stanford

Louisiana State’s Donnie Leaycraft teamed with Billy Uribe in doubles Monday to clinch LSU’s first berth in the finals of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. men’s team tennis championships.

Second-seeded LSU defeated Michigan, 5-4, and top-seeded Stanford beat USC, 5-3, in semifinal matches at the University of georgia’s Henry Feild Stadium.

LSU and Stanford will meet today in the first finals match between the tournament’s top two seeded teams since 1983. Stanford won the 1983 event, defeating top-seeded Southern Methodist.

Stanford, which won its sixth and latest national championship in 1986, clinched its match against USC in No. 3 doubles, when Jeff Cathrall and Eric Peus teamed for a 6-4, 7-6 victory over John Carras and Byron Black.

In the only other doubles match to be completed, Patrick McEnroe and Martin Blackman of Stanford defeated Murphy Jensen and Scott Brownsberger, 6-4, 7-6.

Stanford got singles victories from Cathrall, Blackman and David Wheaton, its No. 1 player, while Carras, Black and Brownsberger won their singles matches for USC.

Leaycraft and Uribe clinched the match for LSU with a 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 victory over Jon Morris and Chip McColl in No. 3 doubles. Morris defeated Leaycraft, 6-3, 6-3, earlier in No. 4 singles.

LSU’s top singles player, Jeff Brown, defeated Michigan’s Dan Goldberg, 7-5, 6-2, while Uribe won his No. 2 singles against Michigan’s Ed Nagel, 6-4, 7-5, and Mike Hammett defeated Jean Roussel 7-6, 6-1.

Besides Morris, Michigan also got singles victories from Malivai Washington, who defeated Felix Barrientos, 6-3, 6-2, and Brad Koontz, who beat Roland So, 7-6, 6-2.

In other doubles matches, LSU’s Brown and Barrientos defeated Nagel and Washington, 6-3, 6-4, while Michigan’s Goldberg and Koontz teamed to beat So and Hammett, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6.