UCLA men’s tennis has braved it all this season – from injuries and hostile away crowds to inclement weather – en route to the current No. 2 national ranking as well as Pac-12 regular season and conference tournament titles.
The secret? It might very well be what the players dub the “tennis apartment.”
“It’s a good place to all come together,” said sophomore Austin Rapp. “After a big win, we go there, and if we have a weekend off, that’s the place to be. It’s a lot of fun – the other night, our match when we beat Cal (on Saturday) was on TV and we were all there watching it as a team.”
But according to coach Billy Martin, the tight-knit team chemistry was rocky early in the season and took time to develop.
“I think as the year went along, we repaired some things that haven’t been real good among some team members,” Martin said. “They’ve grown together, they’ve learned to accept some of each other’s idiosyncrasies, and the common thread that’s brought us all together is winning.”
Part of the tension was due to natural competition for singles playing time.
“I want the freshmen to come in and nip at the heels of the older guys and threaten them because that will make them work harder,” Martin said. “I want the older guys to feel like they got to keep improving and be leery of these really good upcoming freshmen that want to take over from them and possibly could.”
Despite starting the season with five consecutive wins, losing twice in a single week, ironically, was when the team chemistry began to click. Rapp said UCLA’s losses to Virginia and North Carolina hurt and the team bonded over their collective eagerness to win every match afterwards.
A snowstorm also postponed the Bruins’ return flight from Virginia for a couple days. Spending so much time together, redshirt senior Ryoto Tachi said, made the team feel like “one big family.”
“Every trip is a good time because we do everything together – even at airports we try to play some games to keep us entertained,” Tachi said. “We’re always joking around. Whether it’s at dinners or once we get on the plane, we’re still making fun of each other, and I think that’s great. We’re always having a good time.”
The losses in Virginia came in an unfamiliar indoor environment, but after strong back-to-back wins against Stanford and USC, the Bruins rediscovered their confidence. They are currently on a 15-match winning streak, and according to sophomore Logan Staggs, everything came together at the right time.
“Having confidence in each other has been a huge part of why we’ve done so well,” Staggs said.”It helped us during some really tough matches, like what we just experienced a couple days ago against Cal.”
UCLA’s level of camaraderie manifests when dual matches come down to singles play. Each match, whether it’s at court one or court six, has equal significance, and having confidence in the rest of the team lessens the pressure to win a specific matchup. Staggs said the trust built over the course of the season is key come the NCAA Tournament next month.
“Just having confidence and believing in one another has really put this team in the position to win it all this year,” Staggs said.