Men’s tennis falls short against UNC at ITA National Indoor semifinals

A repeat of last year didn’t seem likely at first, as the No. 9 UCLA men’s tennis team led in the early sets against No. 7 UNC in the semifinals of the ITA Division I National Men’s Team Indoor Championship.

But the No. 3-seed Tar Heels fought back in the remaining sets to overcome the No. 7-seed Bruins 4-2 on Sunday morning to knock UCLA out of the tournament for the second straight year.

Before the loss, the Bruins recorded impressive victories over the No. 10-seed Georgia Bulldogs in Friday’s first round and the No. 2-seed Texas A&M Aggies in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

“We certainly had our chances but nothing to be too upset about,” said coach Billy Martin. “I’m pretty happy with us coming in here and getting two really good wins against Georgia and A&M. Being in a battle with this team, a team that’s just as good as any in the country, at least shows us that we’re competitive and I think on a good day we can probably battle with anybody.”

The Bruins struggled in singles play against the Tar Heels. Despite starting the matches strong, they were routed quickly in the ensuing sets. Both junior Gage Brymer and sophomore Martin Redlicki were downed in straight sets, while sophomores Austin Rapp and Logan Staggs were defeated in three.

“I thought it started out well for us in singles. We were up on, I think, five courts,” Martin said. “As far as breaks and leads, that dissipated. We kinda went south in a couple of the matches.”

While the rest of the team struggled, junior Mackie McDonald dominated. The All-American and former Pac-12 Player of the Year beat UNC’s Brayden Schnur 6-3, 7-6, giving the Bruins their only singles point of the match.

“Today was different from the other days. I was more mentally focused from the start,” McDonald said. “I knew it was going to be a tough match, and I had to show up from the beginning. With my game plan I wanted to make a lot more first serves today, and I wanted to put more returns in the court and look for forehands and just move the guy around, be physical.”

Redlicki and McDonald went undefeated in doubles on the weekend, taking down a pair of ranked doubles teams.

McDonald also edged out a decisive 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory in singles play against UGA’s No. 22-ranked Wayne Montgomery. The victory won the match for the Bruins and advanced them to the quarterfinals.

“I felt like I didn’t really perform as well as I needed to at the beginning of a lot of these matches and mentally kinda put myself in a hole, and then I had to force my way out of it,” McDonald said. “I feel fortunate that I was able to get out of it. As the season goes on I hope to not play as many three-set matches and be very dominant.”

The only match McDonald did not finish was against Texas A&M’s Arthur Rinderknech because UCLA clinched the win on another court. McDonald was leading 2-0 in the third set.

Martin experimented with the lineup this weekend, trying different players at different positions, an unorthodox and risky move in such an important tournament.

In doubles, freshman Maxime Cressy replaced junior Joseph Di Giulio as senior Karue Sell’s partner against Texas A&M and UNC.

In singles, Rapp replaced Di Giulio at the No. 6 spot against UNC. It was his first dual match appearance since Georgia Tech in late January. After a promising 6-4 start, Rapp sprained his ankle on a return in the second set of the first game. Rapp never fully recovered and lost his match to UNC’s Anudeep Kodali 6-4, 3-6, 3-6.

“He hit a winner behind me and I tried to change direction and turned it a little bit,” Rapp said.

Despite a disappointing loss in singles, Rapp, and the rest of the Bruin duos, dominated doubles play on Sunday and the weekend as a whole. The Bruins took all three doubles points against UGA, Texas A&M and UNC, and are now 7-2 on the season.

“It’s just simple. We just have three good teams,” Rapp said. “We have good players on every court. … No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 can all win on any given day, so there’s really no weakness in the doubles teams.”