Men’s tennis faces tough path to NCAA Tournament, following loss to No. 1 USC
Sophomore Clay Thompson and the Bruins have 10 days to prepare for the NCAA Tournament.
By Andy Thompson
May 2, 2012 1:41 a.m.
Fresh off splitting two matches with the No. 1 team in the country, the No. 5 UCLA men’s tennis team has 10 days to prepare for the NCAA Tournament.
Coach Billy Martin wants the Bruins to use that time to work out the few kinks in their lineup.
“Certainly the three and four spots and the doubles is where we need a better showing,” Martin said. “Doubles is certainly a key.”
The Bruins dropped the doubles point both times in their recent matches against USC, and freshmen Dennis Novikov and Marcos Giron are instrumental in the middle of the Bruins’ singles lineup.
They will have a little bit of time to improve doubles play before UCLA will carry a No. 4 seed into the Los Angeles Tennis Center, where they’ll face off against Eastern Kentucky.
Baby Bruins
Seven years ago this month, current UCLA assistant coach Kris Kwinta heaved his tennis racket into the Texas sky after winning a national championship-clinching match. He was one of four seniors on Martin’s 2005 title winning team.
This year the Bruins are lacking in the veteran department. They have only one senior, Nick Meister, who is their top-ranked singles player at No. 17 nationally.
Sophomore Clay Thompson understands the importance of senior leadership, which is something he saw in USC.
“‘SC has a very experienced lineup. They know how to deal with pressure situations. That is something that we still need to learn to do to get to the highest level,” he said.
UCLA is the only team in the nation’s top five without multiple seniors.
Virginia and Georgia have four apiece; USC has three; and Ohio State has two.
“We only have one senior, and the rest are mostly sophomores and freshmen,” Thompson said.
Unlike in their championship run in 2005, the Bruins will rely heavily on freshmen in the nationals. Novikov, Giron and fellow freshman Dennis Mkrtchian combined for a 17-4 record in conference this year.
Trojan goggles
It seems as though the Bruins have been seeing nothing but Trojan cardinal and gold over the past two weeks.
They demonstrated restrained jubilation after beating USC for the regular season conference title, only to lose to them eight days later.
Throughout the stretch Martin has cautioned his troops to not get too obsessed with their rivals.
“(Coach) definitely motivates us for ‘SC. We want to win matches against them, but it’s not the end of the road,” Mkrtchian said.
Martin knows the Trojans will be one of many vying for the title in Athens, Ga. later this month.
“There’s not just ‘SC ““ I mean there are other great teams: Virginia, Ohio State, Georgia and a few others. I don’t want to get too focused on USC,” Martin said.
But, he does relish every opportunity to face off against the Trojans.
“I hope we get a chance to play them again at the NCAAs,” he said after losing the conference championship final in Ojai, Calif. “We’ll get that little bit of fire back after losing this match. It proved to me bottom line that we are right there in the ball game with them. That’s all that we can ask for is a chance.”
