Coaches are usually the ones instructing their players on how to get better at their craft, not the ones knocking them out of a tournament.
Oddly enough, that’s what happened at the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships over the weekend as men’s tennis assistant coach Kris Kwinta and partner John Peers defeated junior Warren Hardie and sophomore Clay Thompson in the semifinals.
Kwinta and Peers would go on to lose in the finals, but Kwinta was just excited to be playing competitively again for the first time in a year.
“I know these guys’ weaknesses so that’s an advantage to me, but they rose up to the occasion and they really elevated their game. I thought we played really good doubles on this trip,” Kwinta said.
“It was a fun event for me as a coach and as a player to see my guys do well and compete like they did.”
The Bruins, who were coming off a 6-1 loss to the Trojans before last weekend’s tournament, dropped one spot in the national rankings to No. 4.
They will now face Hawai’i on Saturday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center at 1 p.m. The Bruins own a perfect 4-0 record against the Warriors, with their most recent victory coming in a 6-1 win last season at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
“I don’t want to sound overconfident, but I’m not expecting this to be one of our tougher matches,” coach Billy Martin said. “I think, again, it’s a match that will get us back on track after having a little time off from singles play and hopefully forgetting about the USC match. It will be a good warm-up, because we’ll have a very tough match Wednesday against Baylor.”
Even if this is expected to be an easy victory, Martin’s captain is not looking past this match.
“We need to come out playing our best tennis,” redshirt senior Nick Meister said.
“It’s an important match for us. We won’t have played in a week and a half, so it will be good for us to get back on our feet.”
While preparing for this match, the team is simultaneously getting ready for the fast-approaching finals week.
“They’re always focused on their studies. As a student-athlete here at UCLA, there’s never really a down period,” Martin said. “We’re certainly here to do well with our tennis, but they are student-athletes, and these guys have been really doing quite well with their grades. I’m very proud of the team in the fall quarter and most of them that are returning, so I really have a lot of confidence that they’ll finish well.”