TENNIS : TAINO FINDS SPARK IN TIME.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Daily News Staff Writer

Eric Taino should be a happy man these days. The UCLA senior enters the final stage of his college tennis career with a top-10 national singles ranking after leading the Bruins to the No. 1 spot in the country.

On Friday he played his way into the semifinals of the men's Pacific-10 singles championship at the 97th Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win over Stanford's Mike Bryan. Taino is one of the favorites to win.

In May he'll compete in the NCAA Tournament.

Impressive stuff, to say the least. Yet Taino is hardly satisfied.

What gives?

A lack of dominance, according to the New Jersey native.

``There are times when I feel like I'm just floating out there,'' Taino said after ousting Bryan. ``It's like I just do enough to win. One day I'd like to come out and play hard from the beginning and make it easy on myself.''

It's a riddle Taino has had difficulty solving for quite some time. Enough talent to win, just enough mental lapses to struggle.

Taino's win prevented an all-Bryan semifinal. Mike's twin brother Bob powered past USC's Pat Gottesleben 6-2, 6-1. He'll face Taino today at 11 a.m.

Stanford's Ryan Wolters plays USC's George Bastl in the other semifinal.

In the Pac-10 women's singles championship, Arizona's Vicky Maes will play teammate Karen Goldstein in one semifinal while Stanford's Julie Scott plays teammate Lilia Osterloh in the other.

In local play, Nick Weiss of Calabasas was beaten by Chris Chung of Sunny Hills in a boys' CIF singles quarterfinal match. Helena Horak of Westlake was beaten in the girls' 18-under quarterfinals by Faye De Vera of Villa Park.

Taino is growing weary of lethargic stretches of play followed by bursts of brilliance. For the most part that was the pattern against Bryan.

Taino never felt he was in the match until the third set. He won the first easily enough but slipped badly in the second and Bryan took advantage.

It took a tough stretch in the middle of the third set before Taino woke up.

``I had to play three good points and that got me going,'' Taino said. ``After that I started to play better.''

He just wonders why that doesn't happen more often.

``To be honest, I have no idea,'' Taino said. ``I just have to come out and play hard from the start, I guess.''

USC's Bastl has been on a roll lately. He's ranked 30th in the country but that should change when the new rankings are released Tuesday. Bastl split with Wolters and Taino recently and easily defeated UCLA's Kevin Kim in the quarterfinals here 6-3, 6-3.

``He's a top-10 player,'' USC coach Dick Leach said.

Bastl agrees, to a point.

``I feel on any given day I can beat a top-10 player, but the question is can I do it day in and day out?'' he said.

Bastl transferred to USC from South Florida this season. He didn't start playing for the Trojans until January, hence the low ranking.

``If you don't play in the fall it takes a long time to catch up,'' Leach said.

That's OK with Bastl. He's playing his best tennis of the year at the perfect time. He believes the ranking will take care of itself as long as he continues to do well in Ojai and during the NCAA Tournament. Today he resumes an intriguing battle with Stanford's Wolters. They split in their most recent matches.

``I was lucky enough to get the best of him the last time we played but I'm sure he's got revenge on his mind,'' Bastl said.