By Gilbert Quiñonez
Daily Bruin Contributor
Home sweet home. The UCLA men’s tennis team is glad to be
playing at the Los Angeles Tennis Center against the University of
San Diego today after a disappointing finish at the National
Indoors in Kentucky last weekend.
“Kentucky was really, really, really boring,” team
captain Erfan Djahangiri said. “It was really, really cold,
too.”
In the National Indoors, the Bruins (7-1) were upset by USC in
the quarterfinals and dropped to No. 5 in the rankings.
USC (6-2) is now ranked ahead of UCLA even though the No. 4
Trojans have a worse record. Though USC did beat UCLA 4-1 last
week, the Bruins beat them 7-0 two weeks ago.
“They beat us,” sophomore Tobias Clemens said.
“They deserve to be there. We’ll be ahead of them again
as the season progresses. Hopefully, we’ll be ahead of
everybody.”
UCLA looks to improve on its ranking with a strong showing
against USD, which enters the match with a 2-3 record and a No. 59
ranking.
This match should be an easy win for the Bruins, whose only
losses and close matches have come against some of the top teams in
the country. The USD Toreros have lost to Arizona, the sixth best
team in the Pac-10.
“They’re a pretty good team,” head coach Billy
Martin said. “Still, they’re a team we should
definitely beat.”
One of the main factors that the tennis team will have to
overcome is playing on outdoor courts again.
“It’s always easier to go from playing outdoors to
playing indoors (than the other way around),” Martin said.
“There are so many factors involved, including the sun, the
wind, the weather.”
Also, there’s always the factor of looking ahead to
Tuesday’s match against much stronger San Diego State.
“We wanted a match before SDSU,” said Martin.
“We need to get back on course again.
The Bruins are just happy to be back home once more.
“It feels good to be on my courts again ,”
Djahangiri said.