UCLA men’s tennis charged up for rematch of NCAA final against Virginia

Men’s tennis coach Billy Martin exerted little in simply hitting with a rehabbing Adrien Puget on Tuesday. But memories of Puget’s three-set defeat that crowned Virginia the 2013 NCAA champions proved enough to elevate the blood pressures of both men.

“From a coaching standpoint, I say … ‘What could I have done differently, what could I have told him,’” Martin said of a 7-5 third set last May that at one point saw some Bruins rush the court after a Puget volley appeared to clinch a national title. A net-touch call erased the point, and Puget would not win another game.

“You always replay it in your mind, especially when you lose. You don’t replay it too much when you win,” Martin said.

Thursday’s home match against No. 2 Virginia (9-1) provides No. 3 UCLA (9-1) a chance to press forward from the wounds of last spring. Half of the Bruins’ singles lineup knows not the hurt of a lost championship: Three UCLA freshmen will take the courts, as well as doubles pairs Virginia has yet to play against.

“We’ll be lucky if there’s one of the same matchups (as in 2013) … It’ll be a whole different type of thing,” said Martin, who also pointed out shake-ups in Virginia’s own lineup, including the graduation of the Cavaliers’ No. 1 player last year, Jarmere Jenkins. UCLA lost its own top singles player when Dennis Novikov turned professional in August.

Junior Dennis Mkrtchian (elbow) joins Puget (knee) as injured Bruins who played in last year’s title game but will sit out Thursday’s meeting. He said he finds UCLA, despite the lineup turnover, to be in good position to win what he considers the Bruins’ biggest regular season game over the past few years.

“I don’t want to say I’m replaceable, but … we’re as deep as ever. As much as it bothers me that I’m not playing, I feel a little better knowing that the team’s still (playing well),” Mkrtchian said.

The junior has missed UCLA’s last two games with pain that he traces back to October, and he does not expect to play again until at least the end of the month, right around the time Martin envisions Puget’s 2013-2014 season debut.

Martin enters Thursday’s NCAA title rematch “energized” after UCLA avenged its only loss of the season with a 5-2 victory over USC on Feb. 25.

The coach found himself encouraged with most of his players’ performances, particularly with No. 35 Mackenzie McDonald’s mentally sound play. The freshman, UCLA’s third-highest ranked player, earned a straight-set victory over the same Trojan that Martin said “convincingly” beat the first-year just a week and a half prior.

“Tennis is a great sport, where there’s always another match, and that match is literally each weekend, or during the week,” McDonald said. “To be a tennis player, you need to have a short-term memory.”

The young player’s philosophy served him and his entire team well last week. Yet holding onto a nine-month-old moment may well make today just a bit more memorable.

Three things to watch

1. Marcos Giron v. Alex Domijan: With both players playing at No. 2 singles in their teams’ most recent meeting, this potential pairing appears to be the most likely rematch from last year. Giron bested Domijan 6-4, 6-4 in the 2013 NCAA team finals.

2. UCLA’s freshman trio: No. 35 Mackenzie McDonald, No. 74 Gage Brymer and Joseph Di Giulio have combined for a 20-4 dual match record thus far. No more than one of them has lost a singles point in any given team match this year. That trend might need to continue for UCLA to win against the reigning champions.

3. Karue Sell: The redshirt sophomore has only dropped three games across four sets in his first two matches since Feb. 1. An extended hot streak from Sell could be crucial for a Bruins squad that typically surrenders the doubles point against upper-tier competition. Sell prevailed in three sets to tie UCLA 3-3 with Virginia in 2013.