OJAI, Calif. – As is tradition, Patrick Zahraj went to shake the chair umpire’s hand following his doubles match.

But after extending his hand, the redshirt senior then rescinded it, leaving the umpire hanging.

A frustrated move in a season of frustration.

No. 6 seed UCLA men’s tennis (12-10, 3-5 Pac-12) suffered a postseason-opening defeat to No. 3 seed Utah (22-4, 6-2) under the Thursday night lights of the Pac-12 quarterfinals. Their earliest exit in more than a decade, the 4-1 loss marks the first time since the modern tournament format was adopted that the Bruins won’t return to Westwood with victory in hand.

“I’ve thrown a lot on them, and I think they’ll be better Bruins for it in the years to come,” said coach Billy Martin. “It’s just the learning curve went pretty fast for them.”

With UCLA on serve at 0-30 and Utah up 5-4 in the deciding match of doubles play, a ball was ripped high over the net toward Zahraj and Gianluca Ballotta. The freshman called off Zahraj, realizing the ball was headed out if untouched, but Zahraj was already in motion and extended for a backhand volley.

The shot appeared to be a winner, but the chair umpire ruled that Ballota’s call was an obstruction of play, and the point was awarded to Utah.

“That happens every day, and for some reason, this umpire felt like that was a distraction, which was totally unbelievable,” Martin said. “For whatever reason, it wasn’t overturned, and I just feel like it was a crucial time.”

And so another clinical effort from the No. 49 pair of junior Timothy Li and sophomore Giacomo Revelli – securing a third ranked win in their last four completed matches – didn’t matter. Zahraj and Ballotta were broken to lose 6-4, and the Bruins dropped the 1-0 advantage, starting a step behind in search of redemption against the team that dealt them heartbreak less than a week prior.

Zahraj was still shaken by the doubles controversy as he moved into his singles match, repeatedly questioning the calls of his opponent while murmuring to himself between points. It resulted in a 6-1 first set in favor of Utah’s No. 98 Franco Capalbo, who Zahraj had straight-setted in their previous contest.

UCLA dropped four first sets in total, with only Revelli and Ballotta providing hope via 6-3 and 7-6(4) first-frame triumphs, respectively. Revelli got the Bruins on the board for the first and final time of the evening with his 6-3, 6-4 defeat of No. 43 Geronimo Espin Busleiman.

“It’s definitely satisfying to get that win, a bit of revenge for our matchup at UCLA, which I thought was equally close as today,” Revelli said. “Today gives me confidence going into the NCAAs that I really executed on the key points, and that showed today in the score.”

After knotting the match score at one apiece, though, dominoes kept falling, and not for the Bruins.

Redshirt sophomore Jeffrey Fradkin and freshman Aadarsh Tripathi took identical 6-4, 6-3 losses on courts six and three, respectively, to push Utah to a commanding 3-1 lead. Tripathi, who came within one point of playing hero for the Bruins in their regular-season finale against the Utes, didn’t sniff the same opportunity in Ojai.

The decider instead came down to court one, where Zahraj switched into a new gear to earn a second-set tiebreaker. The Capalbo and Zahraj contingencies had hurled chants and cheers back and forth for much of the previous games, but as the tiebreaker progressed, the latter quieted and the former only got louder.

Capalbo darted out to a 6-1 lead, proving too strong for the Bruins’ leader to overcome. Zahraj lost 6-1, 7-6(3) as Capalbo’s fans rushed down from the stands – a scene not too dissimilar from what transpired at the Los Angeles Tennis Center last Saturday.

“I feel like that’s something we can all bring to our game – that competitiveness, that fight,” Revelli said. “Sometimes it may not go your way as it didn’t for Pat today, but that’s, in my opinion, the bare minimum you need to give out there.”

As it has all season long, inexperience on the biggest stage continued to be the Achilles’ heel for the Bruins. Five of six starting singles players were underclassmen, three dropped their first sets and two lost their matches, forcing their eldest veteran to clutch up.

Just like his head coach, Visaya acknowledged the challenges of youth in big moments, but at the same time, said their efforts offer hope.

“I’m just excited that we’re all a young team, and we’re all competing against these older guys,” Visaya said. “And we’re just right there.”