There couldn’t be a more thrilling way to
close out the season for the UCLA men’s tennis
team.
Besides the fact that it is the last game of the regular season
and a Pac-10 Championship is on the line, the opponent, crosstown
rival USC, weighs heavily on the minds of the players.
“I think the fact that we are playing USC is
more important than it being the last match of the regular
season,†sophomore Mathieu Dehaine said.
“Playing at home is their strongest
weapon.â€
With 16 NCAA titles apiece, these two tennis programs have
established Southern California as a place of elite collegiate
tennis.
Although the Trojans (8-13, 1-5 Pac-10) are struggling this
year, no Bruin is taking anything for granted because they know
crosstown matches are never predictable.
“They are not having as good of a season as I
thought they would have, but they are going to stand up and want to
beat us,†UCLA coach Billy Martin said.
UCLA leads the overall series against USC 90-79, and the Bruins
beat the Trojans at home 5-2 earlier this season.
The Trojans, historically, have the most doubles titles in the
nation at 20. They have only dropped the doubles point four times
this season, one of them coming at the hands of UCLA.
Sophomores Dehaine and Jeremy Drean, who hail from France, have
played a big part in the Bruins’ successful run
through the Pac-10.
The No. 3 doubles pair of Dehaine and Drean is 6-0 since being
paired together at the beginning of Pac-10 play. The two friends
competed as a team in France for five years as juniors.
“The first time we played together was at the
Under-14 European championship with the French (national)
team,†Drean said.
“We’ve played strongly in the
last four matches together here, and I am confident about this
one.â€
But despite the recent success of the sophomores and the team,
Martin knows the Bruins will have to work hard for a win.
“We could win the doubles and lose the match,
or lose the doubles and win the match,†Martin said.
“You never know, especially with
USC.â€
A win would mean a third consecutive co-Pac-10 title for the
Bruins after sharing the title with USC in 2004 and Washington in
2005.
With UCLA, Stanford, California and Washington all tied atop the
conference standings with a 5-1 record, the Bruins would likely
share the title again given a victory over the Trojans.
“It would have been a better feeling to know
we could win it out flat,†Martin said.
“But it is still very important.â€
The standings could have been different, but an
umpire’s decision in a recent match against
Washington cost the Bruins the victory.
In the match, the umpire awarded the Huskies a penalty point
after sophomore Haythem Abid tossed his racket in frustration after
losing his match.
Since Abid’s teammate, Dehaine, was in a
tiebreaker, the extra point gave the Huskies the match.
“I was about to serve, and their coach ran
across the court,†Dehaine said. “I
lost that point, and that was it. It all went very fast. And being
concentrated in my match, I didn’t have time to
think about it.â€
But what has happened is in the past, and the Bruins learned a
lesson from it.
“We are going to be stronger for it, but it
better not happen again,†Martin said.