Making his debut, a freshman got the blue and gold back in the win column.
After falling to its crosstown rival No. 9 USC on Sunday, No. 17 UCLA men’s tennis (4-2) dispatched UNLV (3-6) on Tuesday 6-1, dropping two sets throughout the entire match. The Bruins now hold an all-time record of 18-0 against the Rebels.
Freshman Stefan Leustian made his UCLA debut in perfect fashion, defeating UNLV’s Jackson Atherton without dropping a single game, winning each set 6-0.
“I didn’t want to give him anything,” Leustian said. “(I) didn’t want to get him back in the match. It’s my first home game, so I wanted to stand out.”
Coach Billy Martin said Leustian had to battle some adversity this year to get to this point.
“He started to look good (before the season started) and then, unfortunately, got COVID-19,” Martin said. “Then he got a hip flexor problem. Today was a great day for him and a good shot in the arm for confidence.”
The Bruins swept through the Rebels in all three of the doubles matches. Fifth-year graduate student Sam Feit and sophomore Drew Baird took care of business first with a 6-1 victory over the duo of Atherton and Anton Ornberg.
“We play our game and stay aggressive,” Feit said. “We are confident players. Once we get going, we’re pretty dangerous.”
No. 10 senior Keegan Smith and junior Max Wild won their doubles match with a 6-3 win against Clayton Alenik and Eric Samuelsson. The duo of senior Bryce Pereira and redshirt senior Connor Rapp cemented the sweep by a closer margin, defeating Milos Dabic and Jordan Sauer by a set score of 7-6 and a score of 10-8 in the tiebreaker.
In singles play, No. 109 singles player Feit defeated Ornberg once again, notching victories of 6-2 and 6-1. Junior Roscoe Bellamy clinched the win for the Bruins by defeating Alenik 6-2 in both sets, reaching the four-point threshold needed for the UCLA victory.
The matches would continue, however, with Smith pulling off a come-from-behind victory. After trailing 5-2 in the first set against Samuelsson, Smith fought back to win 7-5 and 6-4 in the first and second sets, respectively.
Baird was the only Bruin to drop a set the entire match, as he accounted for both of UCLA’s two set losses on the day. Sauer salvaged the only point for the Rebels, defeating Baird by a score of 7-6 in the last two sets after dropping the first set 6-4.
“I feel bad for (Baird),” Martin said. “We didn’t need that to happen to him. It is what it is, but I thought the rest of the guys looked good.”
UCLA will face Pepperdine at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on March 10, followed by the start of conference play against Utah on March 12.
