UCLA men’s tennis dominates Pepperdine in 4-0 win

Pepperdine’s Tom Hill grunted and groaned each time he hit the ball. He even yelled out a complete sentence after going up 1-0 in his first singles set.

Redshirt sophomore Karue Sell went on to demand that Hill’s feet be just as active as his vocal chords. UCLA’s man on court six kept his baseline-stranded opponent shuffling side to side and skidding all throughout twelve straight game wins on Saturday.

Hill saw the match end much like how it played out: away from the net. Sell delivered an unreturned serve to the top, inside corner of the service box to put the No. 4 Bruins up two points in what became a 4-0 win at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Sell came into his first singles action since the first of the month set on attacking.

“I was just trying to play more aggressively … impose my game a little more. … I had been playing a little bit more passive, and that got me in trouble a little bit (early in the season),” said Sell, who bellowed out a “Let’s go Bruins!’ upon the conclusion of his 6-1, 6-0 win.

Sell added that he intends to continue making his opponents run on “every shot” and intends to play more loosely during his games.

Sell’s brief, dominant performance capped off a day that nearly saw him and freshman Gage Brymer wait until the very last minute to deliver UCLA its second doubles victory in seven tries. With the doubles point in the balance, Sell and Brymer reeled off seven consecutive tiebreaker points after dropping the first.

The duo’s escape came seemingly out of nowhere. Three of five Pepperdine points in the tiebreaker-forcing 14th game ended with the pair of Bruins finding net.

“(Gage) was hitting big and I had the volleys to finish. He was returning well; I was returning okay. It should have been easier,” Sell said.

Coach Billy Martin had little explanation for how his team so suddenly caught fire. He pointed to the Waves making numerous unforced errors, while Sell and Brymer almost spotlessly completed the tiebreaker. Brymer found himself within a few millimeters of committing his own error late in the match, but a return from the freshman skimmed the top of the net during a UCLA point.

“Sometimes when all the focus is on one court, there’s a lot of pressure on all the players. You don’t know who’s going to hold up or break down,” said Martin, who considered his No. 3 doubles spot the team’s weakness as recently as a week ago; Sell and Brymer are now 1-1 as a team.

No. 19 Pepperdine tasked UCLA with fighting elements external to the court throughout the day. Most Waves players loudly celebrated points throughout the course of singles and doubles matches. Junior Marcos Giron expected as much.

“Pepperdine is pretty notorious for being the rowdiest group. The coach is really into them cheering each other on, really pumping up a lot of energy,” Giron said.

Giron and freshman Mackenzie McDonald efficiently closed out the match for UCLA, overcoming a 5-8 doubles loss to each win his singles match in straight sets. The win marked UCLA’s second win over Pepperdine in 10 days.

“Our team is more ‘just get the job done,’” Giron said.