His team doesn’t cease to impress him.
When UCLA men’s tennis coach Billy Martin traveled to Washington for the USTA/ITA National Team Indoors, he knew no match would be easy, as 13 of the nation’s top 16 teams would be competing there.
Moreover, his team knew that if they beat their highest-ranked opponent of the season, No. 9 Notre Dame, during the opening round, the road would only become more rough as they would take on top-ranked Virginia in the second round.
“From the beginning of the season, everybody has doubted us because we had such a different team from last year,” junior Michael Look said.
The doubters quickly became silenced, however, as the Bruins took an impressive 3-1 lead over Virginia after winning the doubles point and getting victories from senior Jeremy Drean and freshman Holden Seguso in singles.
The lead slowly began to fade, however, as senior Mathieu Dehaine was outlasted by Virginia’s Dominic Inglot, who is ranked third nationally, in a third-set tiebreaker 6-3, 3-6, 7-6, and freshman Nick Meister fell 7-5, 6-4 on court No. 6.
Though the score was then tied again at 3-3, the Bruins seemed to be in good shape as senior Harel Srugo had two break opportunities against the nation’s top player Somdev Devvarman to go up 5-3 in the third and final set.
Srugo missed a backhand volley and an opportunity to serve for the match and the upset and one game later got broken by Devvarman for the match.
“To lose that close of a match was disappointing,” Martin said. “But at the same time, it showed me that this team has a lot of heart and that they’re a lot more competitive than I ever imagined. They’re showing that for sure out there every day.”
After the battle against Virginia, the Bruins were a little tired in their Sunday matchup with No. 21 Oklahoma State.
But the Bruins were able to eventually seal the win thanks to Meister’s come-from-behind, three-set win at court No. 6.
“We were tired, and it came down to a will to win,” Martin said. “I was really proud of them.
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the team; they really are showing improvement.”
Against Oklahoma State, it was the back three courts, with Look, Drean and Meister, getting the job done. It came as little surprise though, as the players on the top three courts, Srugo, Dehaine, and Seguso, were pushed to three sets in two back-to-back matches.
Though the Bruins lost to the eventual champions in a close match, the team was able to extract some positives from their performance over the weekend.
“It’s showing us that we’re on the right track,” Drean said. “We still believe in ourselves, and it gives us hope to keep going with what we’ve started with the beginning of this year.”