The No. 8 UCLA men’s tennis team made its transition from indoor competition at National Team Indoors to outdoor this weekend, taking on St. Mary’s at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
Outdoor competition entails being exposed to the elements, with various conditions making play more difficult.
“It was actually pretty windy so the ball was jumping around and we weren’t used to that this past weekend ““ that was the biggest thing about playing outdoors,” said redshirt senior Nick Meister.
“It’s tough coming back from Indoors and playing outdoors so I was happy with the way we responded to the environment.”
However, the weather didn’t prove to be too much as an issue as UCLA put down St. Mary’s with ease, 7-0.
More important than the move outdoors was the move back home to the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
“It was good to get back to our home court. We absolutely needed this match before our match against USC on Wednesday so I thought we looked fairly sharp and our doubles looked pretty good,” said coach Billy Martin. “And all in all, I was pretty pleased with this match.”
“This match was important because it got us back on our home court, it got us a win on our home turf,” Meister added. “We just threw ourselves back in the competition and that’s how we’re going to feel comfortable when it comes down to USC.”
Both Martin and Meister touched base on something also very important to the Bruins ““ their upcoming match against three-time reigning national champion USC Trojans.
When asked how important it was to get a convincing win against St. Mary’s in preparation for USC, Martin said, “It wasn’t all so important, convincing or unconvincing, I think it was just about playing at a high quality. St. Mary’s is a pretty good team so I expected a tough match and the fact that the score was so one-sided shows how well we played.
“It was all about everyone feeling good about themselves and getting a little confidence going into the match against USC.”
Redshirt junior Alex Brigham was able to display his own confidence as he was slotted at the No. 6 singles spot with freshman Dennis Mkrtchian taking a seat for the match.
“I was really happy about Alex’s play. Certainly, he’s done a great job and that’s not an easy decision. I don’t feel great about having to cut off between the six and seventh player,” Martin said.
“But I feel confident that when we do need him he can step in and do a really good job and obviously he did that today.”