On the road to winning its last national championship, the UCLA men’s tennis team faced Tennessee in the round of 16 in the 2005 NCAA tournament.
UCLA started off with dominant doubles play to take the match’s first point. The Bruins continued to dominate into singles, winning the first two matches before the Volunteers finally won a singles point. But UCLA’s lead was too great for Tennessee to overcome, as the Bruins won the match 4-1.
This year, the Bruins and the Volunteers will meet again for the first time in the NCAA tournament since that that day, and again, they will meet in the round of 16. If history repeats itself, the Bruins might once again find themselves on a similar path to a championship season.
Thus far, the Bruins have encountered very little resistance in the NCAA tournament, having swept their opponents in the first two rounds.
But the Volunteers possess a talented squad that features Hunter Reese and Mikelis Libietis, who together make a doubles pair ranked No. 2 in the NCAA.
Tennessee has proved to be a dangerous team after upsetting No. 11 seed Duke in the previous round of the tournament.
The Bruins must remain focused if they wish to avoid the same fate as the Blue Devils.
“They are a good team, there’s no doubt about it,” said coach Billy Martin. “We can’t take them lightly at all.”
However, UCLA has played some of its best tennis all year in the tournament.
One notable Bruin performance came from redshirt sophomore Karue Sell in last week’s match against San Diego. After helping UCLA win the doubles point, Sell later swept his opponent in singles by scores of 6-0, 6-0.
“Right now I think I’m playing really good tennis,” Sell said. “And I’m confident in pretty much all parts of my game.”
After winning the Pac-12 tournament in Ojai and breezing through their first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, the Bruins feel that tournament-style play works in their favor.
“We all grew up playing tournaments, and so I think the more matches we play the better we get,” said junior Marcos Giron. “So hopefully we just keep getting sharper and sharper.”