As the UCLA men’s tennis team got off to a hot 8-0 start to the season, it discovered a motto to its success: Just keep fighting.
Freshman Marcos Giron led the No. 8 Bruins as they fought back to claim a 4-3 victory over the No. 12 Pepperdine Waves on Tuesday.
Now, they will be spending Presidents Day weekend in Charlottesville, Va., to compete in the USTA/ITA National Team Indoors, where the competition only gets tougher.
“This will be our one and only indoor experience. It’s going to be a lot faster, shocking speed,” coach Billy Martin said.
UCLA earned a spot in this tournament by defeating Alabama and Fresno State in the qualifying rounds back in late January.
Their first opponent will be No. 10 Duke (7-0) today. The Bruins lead the all-time series with the Blue Devils 14-2, and the Bruins came away with a 4-3 victory when the two teams last met in 2010.
If UCLA advances to the quarterfinals, it will face either No. 1 USC or No. 16 Tennessee.
“We’re confident, we’ve had some good wins. We’re all playing well. We’re all hungry to win that thing,” freshman Dennis Mkrtchian said. “We all know we can achieve the maximum.” “
One aspect that the team does not believe will be a factor for them is the three-hour time zone difference.
“I think we’ve just got to take it one step at a time. We’ve just got to say it’s just like practice,” redshirt junior Alex Brigham said.
“Don’t let the atmosphere, the fact we are playing indoors, or the fact we are staying at a hotel change anything. We’ve just got to treat it like it’s any other typical tennis match and not let it get to you.”
The road trip will provide a chance for this already close-knit team to bond even further.
“It will be fun. It’s our first complete team road trip,” Martin said. “It’s usually a good bonding experience, especially when we are coming off a great win (against Pepperdine).”
However, this team still needs to improve in its doubles, as it has dropped three of its last four doubles points.
“There’s no doubt about it, our doubles needs to get better,” Martin said.
“That doesn’t mean I’m not happy with our progress. I think we’re playing better. (But to beat) the top echelon of teams we’ve got to play better doubles. We’ve got to try to be at least competitive to win that doubles point.”
The beauty to this team is that every match gives an unsung hero an opportunity to shine.
“That’s the nice thing about it,” Martin said. “Every match someone new is stepping up.
“They’re really competing well; they are not quitting or dying on us. Everybody’s giving 100 percent.”
In other words, as Brigham puts it: “(We) just keep fighting.”