A lot has changed since the quarterfinals of last year’s men’s tennis NCAA Championships.
The UCLA Bruins are no longer the defending national champions looking for a repeat title.
In fact, it is the team that ousted the No. 6 Bruins in the quarterfinal match and ended such hopes that is looking for a repeat during the 2007 season.
But unlike UCLA, the No. 8 Pepperdine Waves have an almost entirely new roster that is devoid of the three top singles players who played a pivotal role in last season’s title run.
So when the Bruins and Waves collide this afternoon, UCLA will try its best to forget the past.
“It’s a different year,” senior Benjamin Kohlloeffel said. “It’s a whole different team.
“I don’t think about last year too much because it’s just too different of a match now.”
But the memories of last season’s loss still resonate deeply in the minds of some Bruins, including coach Billy Martin.
After rain delayed the start time of the match, the two teams were rescheduled to meet at the San Francisco Tennis Club four and a half hours after its original start time, and 30 miles away from its original location.
There was one looming problem, though ““ the Bruins would have to play the match indoors. And though Martin and his Bruin squad aren’t looking to make excuses, the new location favored the style of play of several of the Waves, whose serves became faster and strokes became bigger.
“(That) it hurt us more than it hurt them, or (that) it helped them more than it helped us, I could use that as an excuse and say yes, but we still had our chance,” Martin said. “We found out two hours ahead of time like they did, so I don’t think that’s a fair excuse to use, honestly.”
This time around, though, UCLA will face off against a much younger team on its own courts and look to avenge not just one loss to the Waves last season, but also an earlier 4-3 loss that the Bruins suffered at home.
Martin hopes to re-establish the Bruins as Southern California’s premier tennis school after Pepperdine successfully diverted attention toward Malibu by winning the NCAA Championship last season as the tournament’s second-seeded team.
“It’s still fresh in my memory,” Martin said of last year’s season-ending match. “And I hope it is the same with the rest of team as far as wanting to re-substantiate ourselves as L.A.’s team.
“You can call it revenge, or whatever, but they got us here at home, and it wasn’t quite as close as the NCAAs.”
There’s one thing that stuck out about the defending national championship team in sophomore Haythem Abid’s mind ““ Pepperdine’s team spirit.
Though he thought UCLA was a better team in terms of tennis ability, it was the Waves’ spirit and tight-knit bonds that helped push them to the next level. As all the teams in the NCAA Championships have an incredible amount of talent and depth, each team is looking for the slightest edge ““ and last season, it was Pepperdine that found it.
The Bruins are looking to learn from last year’s champions and are beginning to form a strong sense of team unity and closer ties with one another.
“I think about the quarterfinal match every match now,” Abid said. “The thing I remember most is the team spirit they had when they warmed up.
“They weren’t the best team tennis-wise, but they had the best team spirit during the tournament, and that’s what makes the difference in the NCAAs. This year we’re trying to do that and be better teammates.”