When UCLA men’s tennis coach Billy Martin was planning the season back in the fall, he was not expecting the type of week the Bruins are facing.
All week he questioned his choice of having a dual match against UCI in between last weekend’s Sherwood Collegiate Cup, and the ITA Men’s Kick-Off Weekend. Martin’s intention was to test the lineup and for his players to get more match experience.
Due to freshmen Martin Redlicki needing to rest up for the upcoming matches and sophomore Gage Brymer dealing with unexpected personal issues, Martin was unable to test the lineup he had envisioned for Wednesday’s dual match. In addition, fatigue started to hit some on the team, including senior Dennis Mkrtchian, who had played five matches at Sherwood. Four of those were three sets.
Assistant coach Grant Chen said that despite this early adversity he is confident that the Bruins will come up strong for matches this weekend.
“(Practice) will for sure be a light hit,” Chen said. “We will go through the things we need to sharpen up to get ready. Some guys will like to practice more than others; everyone will have their own pre-match practice routine.”
No. 4 UCLA’s first dual match of the weekend will be against No. 53 Pepperdine. Although Martin is worried, his players aren’t expecting anything too challenging when it comes to the Waves.
“They are definitely a good team, we definitely are too though,” said sophomore Mackenzie McDonald. “We have definitely scouted them out. It’s nothing new. We know all the guys. As long as we stay stable and put in the work we should be fine.”
Redlicki said that most of the Bruins know the guys from Pepperdine and that the team knows what to expect.
“Yeah I know almost all of them,” Redlicki said. “I’m not too worried. I feel like we will be ready for Pepperdine.”
The winner of that match will play the winner of No. 34 Boise State versus No. 41 Texas Tech.
This weekend serves as the qualifying rounds for the ITA National Men’s Team Indoor Championship that will be played in Chicago in early February. For UCLA to qualify it will need to win both matches this weekend.
“Besides the NCAAs, it is the most prestigious and most difficult tournament there is,” Chen said. “It is generally the top-16 teams in the country.”
Even though Martin is worried, his track record says the Bruins will do fine this weekend. Martin has never missed qualifying for this tournament in his 22 years as head coach. In addition, UCLA has won this tournament four times and has been a runner-up twice while Martin has been coach.