The UCLA men’s tennis team loves playing at home.
The No. 10 Bruins beat the unranked Duke Blue Devils (8-6) at home Thursday afternoon 4-3, extending their seven-match winning streak at home and putting their overall record at 10-4. The team is undefeated at Sunset Canyon Recreation Center this year and has had a record of 64-2 at home spanning back to 2012.
Junior Logan Staggs clinched the match decider on court four against senior T.J. Pura. Staggs struggled in the second set after sweeping the first set, but bounced back in his final set, winning 6-0, 4-6, 6-3. He said he missed a couple of opportunities in the second set because of more unforced errors.
“I would have still been in the second set but I felt like I overhit it. I was upset with my choice of shots,” Staggs said. “However, I was aggressive and coming to the net a lot. Being able to come forward and put off a lot of volleys away was critical for this game.”
Coach Billy Martin was happy with the results of the match but criticized the team on its doubles play.
“Well, it was a really close match. We did not play real good doubles at two and three,” Martin said. “Not winning the doubles team always makes me a little nervous but our guys kept their composure.”
Freshman Ben Goldberg and sophomore Maxime Cressy lost their doubles match at court three after a tough call that the duo believe changed the momentum of the match.
The duo was leading 3-0 when Duke hit a ball that the chair umpire called in to the dismay of the Bruins. They were visibility frustrated, with Goldberg and a couple of team members in the stands yelling at the umpire. After that point, Goldberg and Cressy proceeded to lose five straight games and the match 6-4.
“We started out very strong. A little too strong I should say. We were up like 3-0 two minutes in and were overruled with that call 3-0 in. Since that break, it changed the whole momentum of the match,” Cressy said. “We felt the one call specifically hurt. It was tough for us mentally and it made us have very high emotions. The call brought us down and brought them up.”
With the Bruins losing another doubles point, a change might be forthcoming as Martin said the pair of senior Gage Brymer and junior Austin Rapp has been struggling after it lost 6-3.
“Doubles is not like singles where you can lose the first set and work your way back in,” Martin said. “Gage and Austin got off a bad start again due to their bad first service game. Austin and Gage played pretty good last year but obviously that hasn’t happened this year. I don’t think Austin has been playing the best tennis right now.”
On the other singles courts, freshman Evan Zhu won in straight sets, beating freshman Nick Stachowiak 6-3, 6-1 and junior Martin Redlicki beat freshman Spencer Furman 7-6 (7), 6-1.
UCLA will rest up with finals and spring break coming in the next two weeks and no matches until its March 29 duel with UC Irvine.
“We’ll start practicing again next Friday,” Martin said. “This is where the guys need to do a good job knowing their finals schedules but also come out to do a little running and hit with their teammates when they don’t have finals.”