From a motivation standpoint, men’s tennis coach Billy Martin said he should have it easy when his team takes on USC Thursday.
“I don’t ever have to worry about getting my guys up for these matches,” Martin said. “This is what you come to play college tennis for, especially if you’re at UCLA or at ‘SC. If you’re not excited about playing this, you should probably be doing something else.”
Martin said he thinks his No. 19 Bruins (14-7, 5-1 Pac-12), who lost 4-1
USC, which opened the year ranked No. 1 after winning five of the last six national championships
“After those losses, I’m sure they’re not happy,” said sophomore Mackenzie McDonald, UCLA’s No. 1 singles player. “They’ll come out fighting.”
The Bruins will need to come out fighting as well, as the teams will be battling for the No. 2 seed behind Stanford in next week’s Pac-12 tournament. The loser will be forced to play in a quarterfinals match next Thursday while the winner will earn an automatic spot in Friday’s semifinals
“This would be a very important win for us,” Martin said. “We just need to be ready to do everything we can … We can’t be tentative whatsoever.”
Martin said the Bruins did look tentative at the outset when the teams met back in March.
“I don’t think we played very good doubles,” Martin said. “(Freshman Martin Redlicki)
Redlicki agreed that he and McDonald, the nation’s No. 9 doubles pair, had an off day against the Trojans’ No. 3-ranked duo of Roberto Quiroz and Yannick Hanfmann
“We weren’t really flowing well together,” Redlicki said. “And that almost never happens to us. We’re usually pretty good about that. I’m not worried that’s going to happen again.”
Redlicki said he thinks the Bruins have a good shot to win the doubles point, which would make their job easier in singles play.
“I think the doubles point is going to be huge and I think we’re pretty evenly matched on all three doubles courts,” Redlicki said. “Had we won that match, we would have won the doubles point, which would have put us in a really good position to win the match overall.”
The team has focused extra attention on doubles in recent practices, McDonald said. Martin said a win would help secure a regional host spot in next month’s NCAA tournament.
Beyond the significant playoff implications, Thursday’s matchup will showcase one of the best rivalries in college tennis, with USC holding a record 21 national titles
“These are matches that I think you remember after you leave school,” Martin said. “All my other players throughout the years have said ‘Boy, do you remember that one ‘SC match?’ They’re really special moments. Win or lose, you kind of take something from every one of these matches.”