Three days after the UCLA women’s tennis team limped to the end of its season, the UCLA men’s tennis team saw its season come to a close Sunday after a 4-2 defeat at the hands of the nation’s No. 1, the Virginia Cavaliers.
“It was just a great match,” UCLA coach Billy Martin said after Sunday’s loss. “I thought for a time there, we had a really good chance to win it. But that’s how these matches go; they’re a roller coaster ride. Until it’s over, you don’t know how it’s going to turn out. But we played well. I’m not disappointed. We fought hard but Virginia was just the better team.”
If the doubles point was any indication as to how the match would go, then UCLA looked to have Virginia on its heels. The Bruins not only came out hot in doubles, but sustained their strong play throughout the entirety of doubles play, capturing the doubles point with an easy 8-2 victory for seniors Matt Brooklyn and Haythem Abid on court No. 2, and a tiebreak win on court No. 1 for juniors Nick Meister and Amit Inbar.
UCLA seemed to carry its momentum from doubles over to singles play, winning the first set in three of the six singles matches. But only Brooklyn on court No. 3 was able to clinch a singles victory, as the Bruins lost four singles matches, two of them in straight sets, en route to a 4-2 dual meet loss to the tournament’s No. 1 seed.
Had the Bruins defeated the Cavaliers, UCLA would have set up a semifinal date with archnemesis USC Monday afternoon.
The Bruins end the season with a record of 17-7.