When Fresno State (1-0) visits the Los Angeles Tennis Center
today, the UCLA men’s tennis team will be focused only on one
thing: winning.
Despite an extremely talented starting squad, a deep bench, a
plethora of experience, and a perfect 20-0 all-time record against
Fresno State, the Bruins are not looking past the Bulldogs.
“We will not take them lightly,” UCLA head coach
Billy Martin said. “By no means are they a weak team, but
they are a team we should be able to get by if we play at our
level.”
And that level, to this point, has been high.
“We try to play at a very high level,” Martin said.
“Not just at a level to beat our opponents. If it means that
we go out and kick the crud out of some teams, that’s
great.”
After a 7-0 victory over UC Irvine in the season-opener, many
Bruin players turned in solid individual performances at the
Sherwood Collegiate Cup this past weekend.
Four Bruins made it to the semifinals, and junior Tobias Clemens
captured the tournament’s title for the second straight
year.
“We have to just keep doing the things we’ve been
doing and we’ll be okay,” junior Marcin Matkowski
said.
The historical record indicates that the Bruins will do better
than mediocre. Fresno State struggled to a 4-3 victory at UC Irvine
this past Monday, and the Bulldogs have never beat the Bruins. For
Martin, however, that piece of information means nothing.
“I’ve never been one to live in the past,” he
said. “As far as I’m concerned, this is the one that
counts.”
The Bruins expect nothing short of their best efforts today and
every day. Senior captain Erfan Djahngiri, who had a huge victory
over USC’s No. 1 player, Prakash Amritraj, at Sherwood, feels
it.
“Expectations are really high. They’re always really
high. For Fresno State and for the whole season,” he
said.
Clemens, an experienced member of the Bruin squad, knows the
team’s capabilities and what to expect.
His expectations are surprisingly simple.
“I expect us to win,” he said.