It is said that home stands are always important for giving a
team momentum over the rigors of a long season.
For a team that is chasing a national championship, those home
stands are even bigger.
That was the case for the UCLA men’s tennis team, which
finished its last home stand of the season with as much support and
energy as it had at any point during the year’s run to repeat
as national champions.
UCLA continued its Pac-10 dominance, crushing Stanford 6-1 on
Friday and squeaking by California 4-3 on Saturday.
The win over Cal was UCLA’s first 4-3 victory of the
season, having been on the losing end of that score four times
already.
“This was a tremendously important weekend for us,”
UCLA coach Billy Martin said. “It gives us a good jump for
the Pac-10 Championship.”
After claiming the doubles point against the Cardinal, the
Bruins went on to win all but one of the singles matches, a far cry
from the harsh 4-3 loss against the team back in February.
“It was a fantastic win (against Stanford), but it would
not be a great one unless we had won today (against Cal),”
Martin said.
On Saturday the Bruins started the day winning all three doubles
matches, with sophomores Jeremy Drean and Mathieu Dehaine winning
the last point at 8-4.
An hour later, though, the Bears had won the first set on five
of the six courts, with freshman Haythem Abid the only Bruin to
capture the first set. He did it in dramatic fashion, winning 14-12
in a tiebreaker.
“I don’t really know what happened in that first
set,” redshirt junior Chris Surapol said. “But it
looked so bad (on all the courts).”
At No. 6, Drean lost his first set to Cal’s Dean Wallace,
6-1, but answered back with a 6-2 win in the second set.
Surapol struggled in his first set, losing 6-2, but captured the
second 7-5.
On court No. 5, freshman Michael Look followed suit by dropping
the first set, only to come back in the next one.
“It all started with Jeremy when he got a break. That
helped me a lot,” Look said. “All three of us in the
back courts just helped each other.”
After the players’ three victories, the scoreboard was
tied at 3-3, and the idea of a fifth 4-3 loss this season did not
sit well with the Bruins. But Surapol did not let that happen,
winning the deciding match 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.
“It was a well-played match,” Surapol said. “I
knew it was going to come down to something like that today, and it
got me excited.”
Surapol showed patience, tiring his opponent out by varying his
game. This gave the Bruins their first 4-3 win this season, one
that could help them beyond this week’s rankings.
“Having one of our guys step up gives the whole team
confidence,” Martin said. “Chris really wants to be
there, and I don’t know if I can say that about everybody on
our team.”
By defeating Stanford and Cal this weekend, the Bruins are a
step closer to winning the Pac-10 title.
Though the road to winning the conference title and NCAA
Championship is a long one, the Bruins had reason to celebrate this
weekend.
“(To) jump that fence and hug your players instead of
consoling them ““ it is a great feeling,” Look said.