The UCLA men’s tennis team left Chicago on Sunday with another story of what could have been.
The No. 10 Bruins dropped tight matches to the No. 7-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels and No. 19-ranked Ole Miss Rebels at this weekend’s USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, adding to a list of close early-season losses to ranked teams.
Although UCLA convincingly beat No. 17 TCU 4-1 in a consolation match on Sunday, the team’s losses from the previous two days continued a troubling early-season trend of sacrificing chances to seal victories.
“We have to be doing a better job when we’re up and ready to close matches,” said coach Billy Martin. “Whether it be tentativeness or lack of confidence, we have to do a better job of composing ourselves in those closing moments and finishing it out.”
Against North Carolina on Friday, UCLA looked like it might win after freshman Martin Redlicki tied up the match at 2-2 with a win at No. 3 singles. Senior Dennis Mkrtchian looked destined to lose at No. 2 singles, but two other Bruins singles looked like they could produce wins.
Over on court one, the nation’s No. 2 player – UCLA’s sophomore Mackenzie McDonald – led 2-1 in the third set and was serving against UNC’s Brayden Schnur, ranked No. 6 in the nation. On the sixth court, UCLA freshman Austin Rapp held a 4-1 third-set lead on UNC’s Robert Kelly.
But Rapp, who had already squandered two match points in the second set, faltered. After being up 4-1 in the third, he never won another game, dropping the set 6-4. Combined with Mkrtchian’s third-set loss to UNC’s Ronnie Schneider, Rapp’s defeat ended the match with McDonald serving up a break 4-3 on Schnur.
“That’s one of the worst feelings I’ve ever felt in tennis, where you’re letting your team down like that, especially when you have a huge chance to win,” Rapp said.
The loss to UNC in the opening round dropped UCLA into consolation play, where it faced Ole Miss the next day.
Again, the Bruins had a great chance to put their opponents away, with junior and team co-captain Karue Sell serving on match point up 5-4 against Ole Miss’s William Kallberg in the third set. Then Kallberg took over the match.
“From when I was serving up 5-4 to him winning 7-5, he played an unbelievable three games,” Sell said. “I couldn’t really do too much about it. He played unbelievable, hit a bunch of winners. There was really nothing I could do.”
Had Sell won his match, UCLA would have defeated Ole Miss 4-1. But after he lost at No. 4 singles, Rapp and sophomore Joseph DiGiulio fell at No. 5 and No. 6 singles, respectively, to drop the match.
The Bruins won the doubles point in all three weekend matches on the backs of three wins by their No. 1 doubles team of McDonald and Redlicki. McDonald also continued to shine in singles, winning 7-5, 6-3 against Ole Miss’s No. 59-ranked Nicholas Scholtz and 6-2, 6-2 over TCU’s No. 18 Cameron Norrie, as well as looking to be on his way to a third-set victory over Schnur in Friday’s unfinished match.
“That was the best tennis I’ve ever seen (McDonald) play while he’s been at UCLA,” Martin said.
Martin said that while he obviously was not happy about losing twice, he thought the results showed how close the Bruins are to being one of the country’s top teams.
“We can’t be too down in the dumps, we were right there ready to win the matches. We just have to do a little better job of closing,” Martin said. “We have a young team. This is not one of our absolute best teams we’ve had at UCLA, so we’ve gotta take a few lumps and keep working hard and hopefully be at our best come May (during the NCAA tournament).”