The UCLA men’s tennis team has tasted success early this season, asserting itself as a formidable team in college tennis. But one of the Bruins’ biggest challenges in the Pac-12 still lies ahead with next weekend’s match.
“We’ll start working hard on Monday to prepare ourselves for a really tough road match against Stanford, which we lost last year,” said coach Billy Martin. “I’m challenging the team to try to do something different to turn that loss last year around. I think this Stanford team is better than the Stanford team we lost to last year.”
An improved No. 22 Cardinal squad represents a dangerous reality for the Bruins.
Stanford boasts of threats in both singles and doubles, with three top-100 ranked singles players and two top-100 ranked doubles duos.
The Cardinal’s recruiting track record is also worth noting, as they’ve had the top-five recruiting class every year since 2012. Each of these classes has matriculated into the Stanford lineup – a powder keg of talent.
“Last year we lost a tough one at Stanford – they had a pretty tough crowd,” said junior Joseph Di Giulio. “We want revenge, so we’ll be excited for that one for sure.”
The Bruins will also be tested the following Tuesday against No. 9 USC. By some standards, USC is weaker than last season, having lost several players and dropping two key matches to Wake Forest and TCU early this season.
“I don’t even want to think about the USC match,” Martin said. “Certainly it’s coming up and those are matches I never really feel like I need to get the guys excited about.”
The road through the Pac-12 for the Bruins doesn’t end with ‘SC.
Eight conference teams are ranked in the top-100 this season. Of those, seven have at least one ranked singles player and four of them have at least one ranked doubles team. Many Pac-12 teams simply cannot be overlooked. Teams like No. 18 California and No. 37 Oregon have been hot early in 2016 – both teams already boast decisive victories against top teams and feature top singles players and doubles teams.
“I think they are very tough, but we try to keep the same mindset for every match – to try our best and give it our all,” said junior Gage Brymer. “I think we’re going to have the same mentality going in. We know we’re gonna have to play very, very high level tennis.”