Men’s tennis prepares to face Arizona State in first round of Pac-12 championship

The shorthanded Bruins will have the opportunity to capture their 41st Pac-12 championship.

No. 4 seed UCLA men’s tennis (12-5, 4-3 Pac-12) will kick off the Pac-12 championship against No. 5 seed Arizona State (14-7, 3-4) on Saturday. The entire tournament will be played at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.

The Bruins haven’t lost to the Sun Devils in over three years, including a 4-3 victory in Tempe on March 26. This time around, UCLA will be without senior Keegan Smith, its No. 1 singles player.

Graduate student Sam Feit said without Smith each player on the team will need to focus on their individual matchup and fight for every point.

“No matter what, you should just expect to be the person that’s going to come out and win the match for the team,” Feit said. “Just having that winning mindset and doing whatever it takes, fighting for every point. I think the guys collectively are just ready to do that.”

Without his top player in the rotation, coach Billy Martin has been testing out different doubles lineups. The newly ranked No. 68 doubles tandem of sophomore Drew Baird and junior Govind Nanda will be the Bruins’ top doubles pair, as both won their matchups since Smith’s injury.

After Baird and Nanda, Martin said he is comfortable with how senior Bryce Pereira and junior Patrick Zahraj – who have recently spent time on court two – have been playing together.

“It’s one of those not-so-fun decisions but we’ve been trying a few different combinations with Patrick,” Martin said. “Bryce and Patrick have played doubles for the last two years together consistently so I knew they’d be familiar with each other.”

The junior duo of Mathew Tsolakyan and Roscoe Bellamy has been slotted into the No. 3 doubles team for eight straight matches, losing in only one matchup.

UCLA only lost twice throughout its first 10 matchups, but the Bruins have dropped three of their last seven. The team lost Smith to injury before its match with USC earlier this week.

Despite the rough stretch, redshirt senior Ben Goldberg said he believes the blue and gold still has enough to be dangerous in the tournament.

“We were without our main man today, Keegan, but hopefully he can come back at some point, but we’re still a great team without him,” Goldberg said. “If you see us in the Pac-12 tournament or NCAAs, I don’t think that teams would want to play us. We have lots of depth and we’re a team to be feared.”

If UCLA can maintain its unbeaten streak against Arizona State, it will face the winner of No. 1 seed Stanford (9-4, 6-1) and No. 8 seed Washington (10-10, 1-6) the following day in the semifinals.

First serve against the Sun Devils will be at 3 p.m. on Saturday.