After playing five indoor matches in six days, the Los Angeles Tennis Center did not feel like a home-court advantage for the Bruins.
No. 4 UCLA (12-2) battled cold, windy conditions to sweep Portland (5-5) and remain undefeated at home.
“They’re running on a lot of confidence right now, but I’d say they’re more mentally exhausted than physically,” said coach Billy Martin. “It was just not a fun day to play tennis,especially playing late with no sun. But it was a good character builder.”
Neither team was at full strength in the match. No. 3 senior Martin Redlicki and No. 72 freshman Keegan Smith had the day off to recover from the ITA indoor championships. Portland’s top singles player, No. 36 senior Michail Pervolarakis, was out with an injury.
The absence of UCLA’s top two singles players provided extensive playing time for others on the team.
Senior Austin Rapp moved from court two to court one in doubles to team up with No. 102 sophomore Evan Zhu. Despite never having played together before, the duo defeated its opponents 6-1.
“(They also) played one and two singles, so we expected a pretty tough match,” Rapp said. “We made a lot of returns and a lot of first serves, and we just took care of business.”
Although sophomore Ben Goldberg and freshman Connor Rapp dropped their set 6-4 at court three, junior Maxime Cressy and freshman Bryce Pereira responded with a 6-4 victory at court two to give the Bruins the doubles point.
“I knew the guys could perform well if they had that mindset,” Martin said. “I was quite happy with their performance today.”
Freshman Connor Hance earned the quickest singles point of the day for UCLA, winning his first set 6-2 at court four before his opponent retired from the match.
Goldberg and Zhu won their matches in straight sets, with Zhu clinching the victory for the Bruins at court one.
“The whole season, we’ve just been emphasizing (treating) every match the same, with the same intensity and same focus,” Zhu said.
Austin Rapp and No. 60 senior Logan Staggs both secured three-set victories to complete the team’s seventh sweep of the season.
“(My opponent) sort of found his rhythm in the second set and decided to play really aggressive tennis,” Austin Rapp said. “(The match) was a little bit tricky with really tough conditions … I just tried to make the most out of what I had.”
UCLA plays its next match Tuesday, hosting crosstown rival No. 9 USC.