UCLA men’s tennis team off to Georgia as it competes in Sweet 16 of NCAA Tournament
Sophomore Clay Thompson and the UCLA tennis team will advance to the Sweet 16 in Athens, Ga.
Men’s tennis
UCLA 4
San Diego 0
Behind the Score:
4
UCLA’s NCAA Tournament seed
2
Third-set victories against San Diego
24-3
UCLA’s season record
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 14, 2012 12:27 a.m.
The journey for an NCAA championship began this past weekend for UCLA when it hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA men’s tennis tournament. The Bruins, thanks to freshman Dennis Novikov and company, moved past the opening weekend into the Sweet 16.
Novikov, who joined the team in March, clinched a 4-0 victory against the University of San Diego in the third set of his match to send the Bruins to Athens, Ga.
“It’s a good feeling. It’s definitely good to win the match and advance to the Sweet 16,” he said. “It was good to clinch and advance your team to the next round.”
The match was a lot closer than the 4-0 score indicates, but his coach was happy to see Novikov step up to the challenge.
“I thought he was certainly a player capable to really step up and help us. To see him win that match, I think it’s going to give him a lot of confidence,” coach Billy Martin said.
“He’s told me, “˜I’ve never felt this kind of pressure before,’ and I tried to warn him, but I think he finally believes me and he knows what I’m talking about. He handled it very well today, I thought.”
UCLA defeated Eastern Kentucky 4-0 on Saturday in the first round of the tournament, after it shook off a bit of rust from not playing a match in two weeks.
“I felt a little bit in the doubles we were a little rusty because we hadn’t played in a while, but after things started getting going we felt a bit more comfortable,” redshirt junior Alex Brigham said.
The Bruins will now focus on preparing to travel to Georgia where they will face either No. 13-seeded Ole Miss or Michigan on Friday.
“I feel like our ultimate goal is to get there and try to have a chance to win it, but we can’t do it unless we get through the regionals. I felt confident going into this match today, but still you don’t want to take anything for granted,” Martin said. “You knew (USD) would be able to play loose with nothing to lose really, everything to gain, and they kind of looked like that.
“Now I know we got to probably play a very tough Mississippi team. We’ve always had dogfights; they’re very well-coached ““ always a well-conditioned team. It’s going to be nothing but tougher and tougher as we possibly get to go along.”
