A triumphant feat from the freshmen pocketed the Bruins’ win.

UCLA men’s tennis (8-4) propelled past Oklahoma State (11-6) with a 4-2 win on Saturday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. The blue and gold went 2-1 at home this week, also notching a 4-3 win against Yale (8-5) and dropping a 4-0 decision to No. 11 Columbia (11-1) on Monday and Thursday, respectively.

After losing some defining break points in doubles play, the Bruins had to not only brush off losing the doubles point after less than 40 minutes, but were also tasked with responding to their loss against the Lions from a short two days ago.

Freshman Azuma Visaya said the loss to the Lions on Thursday was tough for him personally, but also said he used the day off from match play to implement adjustments before his next opponent – Oklahoma State’s Alex Garcia.

And though his adjustments proved fruitful with a break of his opponent to claim the first set 6-3, Visaya fell in the second set.

“He got away with (the second set),” Visaya said. “But in the third set, I just tell myself to hold my serve, to really fight for every point – and I just gave myself chances.”

Similar trends took place on court three, where freshman Aadarsh Tripathi also struggled in the second set because of similar reasons as Visaya.

“I think I played off a little too much hype and dropped my level a bit,” Tripathi said. “But in the third set I’m really happy with how I competed, and every single point, every single ball, was with a purpose.”

Tripathi came out of the gate swinging at the top of the third to break fifth-year Chase Ferguson and signal a momentum shift. His excitement echoed throughout the stadium, with teammates cheering him on while hanging over the fence nearly onto the court. Tied at 2-2 in the third set, Tripathi leaped to the top of the fence where his teammates were there to greet him with lively high-fives.

“Mentally in the second set I was a little more down and disappointed, but with the help of my teammates, like right there on the fence, they really help me with every moment,” Tripathi said. “I felt like there was a lot of energy and I just need to let it out, and … I let it out in the moment.”

That wasn’t the only momentous occasion of his match, as Tripathi was the player responsible for Saturday’s deciding match shortly following Visaya’s three-set victory. The other two points were snatched by junior Stefan Leustian and freshman Gianluca Ballotta, who were both able to finish in two sets.

Visaya, Tripathi and redshirt sophomore Giacomo Revelli all wrestled with third sets. Revelli saved three set points and continued to battle until Tripathi’s clinch, at which point the contest was cut short with Revelli trailing 2-3 in the third.

Coach Billy Martin said leaving a match unfinished can be disappointing, especially when his player is leading, but he has bigger concerns for his team after the outcome has been decided.

“I’ve had guys get hurt after the team result is over and done with. I just look back and say to myself ‘why did we let this go on? We could have prevented this,'” Martin said. “I’ve had my guys mad at me sometimes about that. I’m a big boy – I can live with that.”

When all was said and done against Oklahoma State, all three freshmen walked off their respective courts with singles wins in hand.

Martin said he understands how important the first-year players are to his team, and he knows that the largest lessons of confidence they will learn has much less to do with the coaching they receive.

“No matter what I say, unless they go out and win a tough match like that, … (coaching) is not going to help as much as actually doing it and being able to look at yourself in the mirror and be proud of what you did,” Martin said. “We as coaches would like to have one of our elder-statesman in that position, but these three kids have shown a lot of heart.”