Heading into the NCAA Regionals this weekend, the No. 1 UCLA men’s tennis team has lost just one match in its last 25. The Bruins haven’t enjoyed such a strong record since the 2007-2008 season, when they went 21-1 before heading to the regional rounds.
The Bruins have had the NCAA title in their sights all season. They will enjoy home court advantage, as regionals will take place at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
“We want to go out to the regionals, win those matches and hopefully go to the NCAA final 16 and come home with a championship,” said coach Billy Martin. “That is our ultimate goal, and you know I think we all believe that we have a pretty good chance.”
Boasting a better record thus far than the 2004-2005 championship team, which won the program’s most recent NCAA title, the Bruins said they believe they are legitimate contenders if they continue to sustain their high level of play. Should they move past the regionals, which begin with first round opponent University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Bruins will still have their work cut out for them; they would need to still win four matches in five days to take home an NCAA championship. Junior Adrien Puget believes the team is physically and mentally prepared to fight during every match and to go the distance as they head into the NCAAs.
“I think we’re pretty fit overall, everyone is feeling confident and we’re moving well on the court from one to six. It’s good to know that everybody is ready to fight for three sets and can handle it,” Puget said. “If you see one of your teammates losing in the second then you feel more pressure, so I think I can count on all my teammates right now to stay physically tough for three sets.”
The Bruins can reasonably expect some dogfights in the NCAA championships, and have had some experience with those types of matches against top-10 opponents, such as USC and Pepperdine, earlier this season. UCLA must maintain this season’s positive momentum if the team wants to achieve its ultimate goal of an NCAA title. Sophomore Dennis Novikov believes that surviving in a championship setting is a matter of the team continuing to do what it has been doing all season.
“I mean, we just have to continue practicing this week, go out there and just do it again. We’ve been playing really well,” Novikov said.