One minute the outcome of the match was uncertain. The next minute, victory was assured. In a span of mere seconds, the UCLA men’s tennis team managed to secure a team victory by a score of 6-1 over the Boise State Broncos at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on Tuesday.
Playing against a team who was coming off of a big upset win over No. 14 Pepperdine, the No. 4 Bruins (2-0) showed how seriously they took the match, relying on their depth to beat the No. 37 Broncos (3-1).
Boise State featured a strong trio of top singles players, including nationally ranked No. 22 Clancy Shields, No. 85 Stanley Sarapanich and No. 90 Kean Feeder. However, the depth of the Bruins really showed as the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches all finished with wins within a minute of each other to secure the match for the Bruins.
Sophomore Amit Inbar dispatched his opponent 6-3, 6-3. Moments later, senior Michael Look took his match 6-4, 6-1. Finally, after being knotted at 4-4 in the second set, sophomore Nick Meister held serve and managed to break in the final game to clinch a 6-3, 6-4 victory and the match for the Bruins.
“We have such depth, it’s really not going to be completely fair to have some of my great players playing down at 4, 5, 6,” coach Billy Martin said.
“Everybody wants to play high, but 4, 5 and 6 are just as important as 1, 2 and 3, and they win matches and NCAA championships for all the great teams. Sometimes the guys would rather play high, (but) I always try to stress to them that they’re as important as anyone on the team.”
UCLA began the match with a few dramatic wins in doubles to propel them to an early lead.
“The doubles went down to the very end, and I think they gave us a good boost going into the singles,” Martin said. “I think it was just a good experience for us to have to go down to the wire in that doubles point.”
With a win at No. 2 but a loss at No. 1, the doubles point came down to the team of junior Matt Brooklyn and sophomore Nick Meister. The experienced team managed to defeat Boise State’s No. 3 team, 8-5, to ensure a lead for the Bruins heading into singles play.
“I’d rather win easily and not be so nervous and thinking we have a real chance of losing it, but we did” Martin said. “Luckily, Nick and Mike have a lot experience, (and) I felt fairly confident it was coming down to them.”
The other singles matches featured quality play from Brooklyn, as he won with relative ease 6-3, 6-3. Junior Haythem Abid was the only player to lose, falling to the highly ranked Shields.
However, the last match to finish featured a thrilling third-set tiebreaker to decide the day’s outcome. Senior Harel Srugo dropped the first set 5-7 but then managed to win 6-2 in the second to force a third set. According to college rules, this third set was a tiebreaker to determine the match, since the team outcome had already been decided.
“First set, I was a little bit uncomfortable because I didn’t feel the ball that well and the match was pretty close, so it was hard to get into rhythm and momentum,” Srugo said. “In the second set, I was really feeling the beginning went well, so I was feeling like I have the momentum going, so that was the key.”
Serving at 7-4, Srugo hit an ace to go up 8-4 and essentially clinch the match. He went on to win 10-6, closing out a Bruins team victory 6-1.