Although the UCLA men’s tennis team may be lacking in the wins column as of late, having gone 1-4 in their last five dual matches, this weekend they showed they are not lacking in heart.
The No. 7 Bruins have been forced to battle through injuries for much of the season and were burdened with the effects of that against two Pac-10 foes, No. 23 California and No. 5 Stanford, on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
But the Bruins wore their hearts on their sleeves.
UCLA dominated Cal on Friday, defeating the Golden Bears, 6-1, and then bounced back on Saturday to give the Stanford Cardinal all they could handle before being edged, 4-3, in a match that lasted over five hours.
Coach Billy Martin is proud of the Bruins’ performance over the weekend and certainly is not attributing the Stanford loss to the team’s injury issues, but he understands that this squad will be much better once they get healthy.
“You don’t want to make excuses, but we certainly would have been a stronger and deeper team if we had Harel Srugo in the lineup for singles, who was our top guy last year and one of our best players,” Martin said.
“But I was very happy with the way we competed and played, picking up a good win over Cal and taking Stanford, who I think is as good as any team in the country, to the absolute limit.”
Facing Cal on Friday in their fifth straight match against a top-25 opponent, the Bruins came out blazing and maintained that momentum throughout the entire match.
UCLA (7-4) swept all three doubles matches against the Golden Bears (3-4) and lost only one singles match, with juniors Haythem Abid and Matt Brooklyn, along with senior Michael Look, all posting straight-set victories.
After their drubbing of Cal, the Bruins returned to the Los Angeles Tennis Center less than 24 hours later to compete in possibly their most important match of the season so far against Stanford (10-1), one of the Pac-10 teams who poses the biggest threat to ending UCLA’s streak of five consecutive conference titles.
The Bruins, who were without the senior Srugo for singles and sophomore Holden Seguso for doubles due to injury, battled to the wire but fell short of victory in undoubtedly their most thrilling match of the season.
After Stanford captured the doubles point, the Bruins regained the momentum by winning three of the first four singles matches in straight-set fashion.
Senior Michael Look may have posted the most impressive victory, defeating Stanford’s standout freshman Ryan Thacher in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, and improving his singles record to 7-0 on the season.
Look’s outstanding play has not gone unnoticed by his teammates, who understand that they must all work especially hard to keep pace now with the team so affected by injuries.
“Michael has really stepped up,” sophomore Nick Meister said. “He hasn’t lost yet. He just does work.”
With the Bruins leading 3-2, Stanford’s Alex Clayton, ranked the No. 13 singles player in the nation, was able to squeak out a victory over Abid, 7-6(8), 7-5, and tie the match at 3-3.
The match then came down to a showdown between Stanford senior Matt Bruch and the sophomore Seguso, who is still battling a hand injury.
Seguso dropped the first set, 6-4, but rallied to win the second set in a tiebreak. In a thriller of a third set, it looked as if Seguso was going to pull out the victory, serving at 5-4. But Bruch was able to break and hold to gain a 6-5 advantage. Seguso then went on to hold, fighting off five match points, and forced the third set to a tiebreak.
But in the tiebreak, Seguso came up a bit short, losing 7-6(0).
The weekend matches did not count towards Pac-10 conference play, and Martin is happy that his squad has gotten to see what they are up against in the near future but also knows that the next time will be tougher considering they will be facing both of these squads on the road.
“Well it’s certainly good to play them because you get a little better feel for their team,” Martin said. “But consequently, the next time we play them will be at their place. It’s always a little more difficult on the road in front of their spectators and their peers.”
Next up for the Bruins is another Pac-10 opponent, but not just any Pac-10 opponent. On Wednesday, UCLA will travel to the Marks Tennis Stadium on the campus of USC to face the No. 4 ranked Trojans.