The crowds came out loud and effective this weekend in the Bruins’ northern California road trip.
The No. 15 UCLA men’s tennis team (14-7, 5-1 Pac-12) started its weekend off against Stanford (15-4, 6-0) – a rematch of their meeting back in February where UCLA came out on top 5-2. The Cardinal were ready for the Bruins this time and upset them 4-3, earning the fourth and final point by winning a third-set tiebreaker.
A big difference from their last meeting was that Stanford had its home crowd to cheer them on. Freshman Martin Redlicki said that the crowd had a significant impact on the match, and that the Bruins had a difficult time staying focused under the pressure.
“Stanford did a really good job of getting a big crowd … just borderline annoying and obnoxious crowd,” Redlicki said. “They had a lot of guys that were in your face and their only goal was to get under your skin.”
Coach Billy Martin told his team going into the weekend that the crowds were going to be a factor and that they were going to have to adjust accordingly. The Bruins just couldn’t block them out at the Taube Tennis Center.
“We just got off to a lousy start at Stanford,” Martin said. “We got broken the first game at courts one and three, and right away we gave the crowd hope that they were going to win the doubles point.”
After dropping the doubles point, UCLA fought to stay in the match, winning three of the singles matches. However, it wasn’t enough and it lost the dual match. They dropped matches on courts two, five and six. Six was the clinching match for Stanford, where sophomore Joseph Di Giulio fought to take it to a third-set tiebreaker, but came up short 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(4).
Redlicki, who played No. 2 singles that day, lost his 11-match win streak against Stanford’s John Morrissey 7-6(3), 6-3.
The following day, the Bruins went to Berkeley to compete against the Bears (16-7, 4-2 Pac-12). Junior co-captain Karue Sell said they were worried coming into this dual match against Cal. The crowd affected them at Stanford and he said he knew they couldn’t allow that to happen again.
“(Cal) beat ‘SC in doubles so we knew that was going to be tough doubles. We came very fired up. We knew that was going to be an important point,” Sell said. “Coming back from a loss and being all fired up was big mental challenge, but I think we stepped up.”
Martin said after the Stanford match he sat his players down and told them that they need more energy going into the Cal dual match. He stressed that they couldn’t let what happened in Stanford happen in Berkeley. That message took hold as the Bruins played some of the best doubles that they have played all season, only dropping five games out of the three sets.
“We came out strong in doubles, breaking Cal in the all the matches. We had a lot of energy and it really took the crowd out of the equation,” Martin said. “They didn’t have a lot to cheer for.”
With a lead going into singles, Redlicki was able to redeem himself from the previous day winning 6-3, 7-6(4) on court two, and senior co-captain Dennis Mkrtchian won his match in an odd three set 6-3, 0-6, 6-4. The match that clinched the win came from Sell who struggled with his opponent in the first set.
“I lost a couple games on deuces and those can go either way. I wasn’t being very aggressive. He was playing the way he wants, and so I lost 2-6,” Sell said. “I was pissed off that I lost that first set that fast and that kind of fueled me for the rest of the match.”
Sell bounced back from his first set loss, winning the second and third sets 6-1, 6-4. His match would give them a 4-1 win over the Bears.
Stanford claims share of Pac-12 title
After its victory over UCLA, Stanford played the other Pac-12 tennis powerhouse, No. 5 USC. Once again, the rambunctious crowd came out to help the Cardinal upset the Trojans 4-3. By winning, Stanford earned a share of the Pac-12 regular season title. Stanford plays Cal at home on Saturday for a chance to outright claim the crown for its own. If Stanford loses, the winner of the UCLA and USC dual match on Thursday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center will determine who will share the title with Stanford. This is Stanford’s first title since 2006, as the last eight years have been dominated by UCLA and USC.