With a weekend sweep of Cal and Stanford, the UCLA men’s tennis team is one victory away from its fourth consecutive Pac-10 championship.
Finally able to look forward to avenging an earlier loss in the season to USC, the No. 10 Bruins (18-3, 6-0 Pac-10) performed as expected in taking down Stanford 5-2 on Friday and dominating Cal 7-0 on Saturday.
“We needed to win both matches in order to have the chance to play USC for the outright Pac-10 title,” senior Philipp Gruendler said. “Now we can fully focus on USC, whom we have all been looking forward to playing again since they rolled over us before. The USC match is going to be the biggest match I have ever played for UCLA during the regular season.”
The upcoming showdown was made possible by solid play over the weekend by the Bruins, who have won nine matches in a row since a bitter 6-1 loss to USC.
On Friday, UCLA came back after losing the doubles point with strong singles play to get the win over Stanford (7-15, 2-4 Pac-10). Senior Benjamin Kohlloeffel clinched the match at No. 1 singles with a 7-6, 6-3 victory.
Losing the doubles point was uncharacteristic of the Bruins, who can usually count on already leading in the match when the singles sets begin.
The surprise of the day came when the No. 1 doubles team of Kohlloeffel and Gruendler was defeated by Stanford’s Matt Bruch and Blake Muller 8-5. In doubles, Kohlloeffel and Gruendler have been almost unstoppable, as they went 22-1 in dual meets last year and were previously undefeated this year.
“It was very surprising for No. 1 doubles to lose,” coach Billy Martin said. “They are the Rock of Gibraltar of the team. All the doubles were a little out of sync because it’s always tough on the road when you’re not used to the conditions and the crowd is heckling you a bit.”
The Bruins got off to a better start on Saturday, easily taking the doubles point en route to a 7-0 sweep despite rough weather conditions. The match was delayed two hours due to rain, and it was windy throughout the day.
“We had a great overall team win over Cal, which I thought was the better of the two teams we played this weekend,” Martin said. “To step up and play very well is a great tribute to the guys.”
The Bruins have only one regular season match remaining, and are anticipating a much higher level of competition than they saw this weekend when top-10 teams UCLA and USC face off on Friday.
“UCLA and USC are obviously the top teams in the Pac-10 this year, which is about as low, in terms of the great teams, as it has been in many years,” Martin said. “Stanford and Cal are not nearly as strong as they have been in the past.”
KOHLLOEFFEL NETS RECORD: With his 6-1, 6-7, 6-2 win over Cal’s Pierre Mouillon on Saturday, Kohlloeffel broke the team record for total career singles victories. The senior now has 120 victories to move past the previous record of 119 held by Tobias Clemens.
“It is a huge accomplishment for him,” Gruendler said. “He’s such a good player and has been lucky to never get injured. He gives a huge effort in every practice and just does his job without making a big deal about almost always winning.”
Breaking the career singles victories record is an even more significant feat knowing that Kohlloeffel has only been competing for UCLA for three years, compared to the four years it took for Clemens to establish the previous record.
“He is a special competitor who has really done a fantastic job,” Martin said. “In my 24 years here, he’s really been the greatest competitor of the guys, not just for singles but for doubles as well. He is an incredible student athlete and a great leader of this team.”