The Bruins commenced this season with a primary focus: winning a national championship.

But amid a slew of illnesses, they have yet to achieve the consistency they emphasized before the dual-match season.

UCLA men’s tennis (2-4) is off to its worst-ever start under coach Billy Martin, having lost every ranked dual-match. The Bruins opened the year as the No. 20 team in the country but have since fallen out of the top 25 entirely.

Two weeks since its last match, UCLA will have an opportunity to get back in the win column when it faces No. 25 Pepperdine (5-4, 1-0 West Coast) on Sunday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

“I’m hoping everybody’s going to be healthy,” Martin said. “We get to play at home again. Again, sports and life is funny sometimes. Doesn’t always go your way, but we’re going to keep working really hard.”

The number of sick players was exacerbated by the Bruins’ January trip to Boston for ITA Kickoff Weekend, Martin said. Including the team’s performance at the tournament, it has gone 1-3 over its last four matches, which all came in the span of nine days.

With familiar members of Martin’s lineup – No. 49 freshman Rudy Quan and freshman Kaylan Bigun – forced to miss games because of sickness, senior Giacomo Revelli and junior Gianluca Ballotta have been thrust into singles action, serving as the No. 5 and No. 6 players in UCLA’s lineup, respectively.

“The guys on (courts) five and six have not played many matches,” Martin said after UCLA’s loss to Stanford on Feb. 2. “So unfortunately, they’re probably not as match-tough as the other guys.”

Despite the past weeks of struggle, Martin and his team said they remain positive.

“We tried our best,” Martin said. “Sometimes, the tennis gods or the sport gods aren’t good.”

Emon van Loben Sels has been a consistent fixture in the Bruins’ lineup all season long. In the latest ITA rankings, the redshirt sophomore jumped 19 spots to slate in as No. 63 in singles.

Despite the early-season losses, van Loben Sels said he believes the Bruins can turn their season around.

“We just need to get everybody healthy and put the pieces together again, and we’ll be fine,” van Loben Sels said. “I don’t think we need to stress about a few of these matches, but I think everybody needs to learn and figure out what they need to do better to get better.”

No. 32 Maxi Homberg headlines the Waves. And Homberg, an ITA All-American, could very well face off against fellow ITA All-American No. 12 sophomore Spencer Johnson come Sunday.

“I’m always confident that he (Johnson) can take the win for us,” van Loben Sels said.

Well aware of the early season woes, Martin said a long season still lies ahead.

“They can get a little angry that we didn’t pull through some of these matches, but we’ll be better for it at the end of the year when it’s really important,” Martin said.