Not content to rest on its laurels, the No. 4 UCLA men’s tennis team will continue to work on improving, despite its 4-0 start.
The Bruins have been on a roll lately, having crushed both of their opponents, the University of South Alabama and Fresno State University, over the weekend.
The team is set to host San Diego State University today at 1:30 p.m.
The No. 58 Aztecs are coming off a commanding 5-1 win over the University of Utah.
The Bruins will need to focus on this match, especially with their matchup against No. 20 Pepperdine looming ahead.
Coach Billy Martin is not overlooking today’s opponent.
“My guys are competitive,” Martin said. “It’s a whole match, one of our absolute goals is to go undefeated at home; we’re not going to let our guard down with someone coming in here and playing at our place. That’s my job as much as anything else, to make sure my guys are ready to play.”
Additionally, the team will look to capitalize on its torrid play in the past couple of weeks and continue to work on enhancing its game.
“We’ve started pretty well,” junior Matt Brooklyn said. “Everyone’s starting to slowly get into it, (getting) used to matches, competing. … It’s always good to have confidence at the beginning of the season. I think everyone’s feeling good about the way they’re playing, but there (are) still lots of ways we can improve.”
Additionally, UCLA lost its first doubles point of the season to Fresno State on Saturday.
“I feel like the doubles is a bit shaky right now. I guess it takes time, but that’s something we need to sharpen throughout the season,” sophomore Nick Meister said.
Despite the gaffe, the Bruins relied on their team depth and won the singles matches, and the team found some positives from their matches these past weeks.
“We handled that well ““ I don’t think we panicked,” Martin said. “We came out and played really good singles. We seemed to be really spirited and confident, which was a good sign. We’ve got to go through some of those ups and downs, and I think we showed some good maturity that way.”