When the UCLA men’s tennis team takes the court today against Utah, it will have been over three weeks since the Bruins last played a match at home. First, the team had a two-week layoff from matches, followed by a road trip to Cal and Stanford last weekend.
Though the Bruins have played well on the road thus far, going 4-0, they take some comfort in knowing that they begin the final stretch of conference matches at home, beginning with Utah and Arizona this weekend.
“The schedule favors us a little bit more this year with more home matches for the conference than last year or every other year. I feel good. We want to keep working hard, we don’t want to just be satisfied,” said coach Billy Martin.
“There are certain things in everybody’s game we need to keep working on for the home stretch.”
The Bruins are currently 16-1 on the season, and 10-0 at home.
“These should be fairly routine wins for our team (against Utah and Arizona). I mean, they’re not as good as Stanford or Cal in terms of conference opponents this year,” said sophomore Dennis Novikov. “We’ve played well on the road, but home is definitely helpful, because we have all of the fan support and everything.”
UCLA plays its last five conference matches at home, culminating with one against USC.
“We’re coming back home, so that’s a good thing. I’m sure (we are) going to come out and be fired up,” said junior Adrien Puget. “All of the teams when they come to L.A. know they have a chance (to win), and will probably take that chance. So we have to be careful out there, and stay focused, and we should be fine I think.”
