Tennis heads to tournament confident but short on practice
By Brantley Watson
Feb. 10, 2009 9:36 p.m.
For the No. 4 Bruin men’s tennis team, preparation just means finding a place to play.
UCLA saw its match against No. 20 Pepperdine get canceled on Saturday because of rain in Southern California. The makeup date for the match has yet to be determined.
Coach Billy Martin is confident with how his team has performed as of late, with the Bruins still standing undefeated at 4-0. He did, however, seem slightly concerned about the squad’s preparation for the upcoming National Team Indoors beginning this Friday in Chicago.
“It’s just discouraging because that would have been a great match for us to have,” Martin said. “It would have been our first road trip and would have got us a little tougher for the National Indoors, which is such a tough tournament and a big tournament for us.”
The National Indoors is an annual tournament that features 16 of the top college teams in the nation
Joining the Bruins in the elite field are Pac-10 rivals Stanford and USC, the defending national champion Virginia, and Texas, the team that handed UCLA its last loss in last year’s national championship semifinals. Despite the recent rain, the Bruins have managed to get a few solid hours of hitting in over the past few days but certainly not as much as coach Martin would prefer.
“We were able to get a hit in Saturday as well as (Monday), and we’re drying off the courts, hoping to get a hit in today,” Martin said at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on Tuesday. “Our goal is just not losing a day of practice and continuing to build and feel better about our game than we did a week or two weeks ago.”
“When we don’t get to play at all is really a problem,” Martin said. “We just can’t get lazy because of the rain.”
But the biggest weight on the shoulders of Martin and his coaching staff is to make sure their squad is physically prepared as well as mentally prepared for the tough road that lies ahead.
“We have to stay reminded of what’s coming up ahead of us,” Martin said. “We’ve got a hell of a challenge in front of us.”
As usual, Martin doesn’t seem worried about the rain or his team’s capabilities. Martin did, however, mention one point that has bothered him over the years.
“I can’t be discouraged,” Martin said. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years so I’m used to this sort of thing. But this is the time where we could use some indoor courts. That has always been a pet peeve of mine.
“Having a couple indoor courts would be really helpful to us.”
