The Los Angeles Tennis Center had a very different atmosphere for the men’s tennis match on Wednesday.
The highly-anticipated match was attended by more fans than any other game this season, had an appearance by the UCLA marching band, and free pizza. Yes, free pizza.
That is what happens when cross-town rivals, the No. 1 USC Trojans, step onto your court to do battle.
The No. 3 Bruins, however, were unable to live up to the hype as they suffered their second loss of the season in a 6-1 defeat.
“It’s just tough to swallow,” redshirt senior Nick Meister said. “You never want to lose … especially to the Trojans.”
The players enjoyed the intensity of the crowd, but were very disappointed with the outcome of the match.
“It was a great atmosphere,” freshman Marcos Giron said. “It’s fun to play in, but it’s too bad we didn’t come through.”
The Bruins started off the match in a 0-1 hole by losing all three of the doubles matchups.
In singles, the Bruins dropped two tiebreakers in the third set that could have changed the outcome of the match.
Sophomore Adrien Puget was the only Bruin to win his matchup since he was able to win a tiebreaker in the third set, but it didn’t matter as USC had already clinched the match.
The three-time defending NCAA champion Trojans remain undefeated on the season with a 14-0 record and are currently on a 34-match winning streak.
The Bruins will do their best to learn from this experience, as the team will have another shot at taking down the Trojans when the two teams meet again on April 20 at USC.
“They’re always great matches,” coach Billy Martin said. “Men’s tennis for both of these schools has done very, very well in the past. It’s a good rivalry. We don’t want to lose to them and they don’t want to lose to us.”
“It’s always going to be an exciting match. We want it to be. We know this is a team we are going to have to beat to possibly win an NCAA championship, and they know this is hopefully a team they might have to play to win it themselves.”
The Bruins will head down to the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club for the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships this weekend. The 123rd installment of the tournament will give UCLA the opportunity to work on its doubles game. The competition is exclusively doubles, and the Bruins will be looking to improve in that area after struggling against the Trojans. Following that tournament, UCLA will host Hawaii at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.