Coming off its fourth straight shutout victory in the NCAA tournament, the UCLA men’s tennis team has some confidence going into the semifinals. But the recent match results haven’t told the whole story.
On Thursday, the No. 1 Bruins defeated the No. 16 Vanderbilt Commodores, 4-0, and then on Saturday they earned a semifinal berth with a 4-0 victory over the No. 9 Duke Blue Devils.
UCLA’s victory on Thursday was the easier of the two, as the Bruins had the lead in the unfinished singles matches as well. However, players described the match against Duke as one that could have gone either way, especially since the Blue Devils were leading in the three other singles matches that hadn’t finished.
After describing most matches as a roller coaster ride, coach Billy Martin also went on to point out that the Bruins’ shutout victories over the weekend were not as easy as indicated by the scoreboard.
“From the first ball to the last ball, I’m always a little bit nervous,” Martin said. “We let some leads go away in doubles but luckily we hung in there.”
In the NCAA tournament, play is halted after one team earns the necessary four points to win the match. On Saturday against the Blue Devils, Martin said he believed the match would likely have ended either 5-2 or 4-3 had they not stopped after securing a fourth point.
Even though he recognizes his team has been playing well, Martin doesn’t want his players to get too confident from a score that is somewhat misleading.
“We finished the matches we were winning before we finished the matches we were losing, so it’s just a win and I don’t really care what the score is if it’s a victory,” the coach said.
Redshirt freshman Karue Sell said that he is hoping to maintain his high level of play going into the last two matches.
“I’ve been playing well,” Sell said. “You never know what can happen in the next matches so I hope I can keep trying my best and producing on the court.”
Three other top-four teams are standing between UCLA (28-1) and a title. Today, the team will face off against No. 4 Ohio State (35-2) for the right to go to the title game.
Last year, the Bruins defeated the Buckeyes in the quarterfinals of the tournament, so the players have some knowledge about the team.
“They are all hard hitters so it’s very tough to beat them,” Sell said. “The doubles point will be very important so if everyone is really fired up, I think we can pull off the victory.”
UCLA is especially worried about the doubles point against OSU, a team that has won the doubles point 35 times this season.
With a new group of headlining players and some added confidence from their regular season success, the Bruins said they feel more confident than last year about their chances of winning the NCAA title.
“I think this year we believe in ourselves more than last year because of our No. 1 seed and because of our regular season which has increased the level of every player,” said junior Adrien Puget.