A steam engine can only be powered down with its own throttle.

And the Bruins’ throttle sparked and sputtered throughout the weekend.

In its first time hosting the ITA kickoff weekend tournament since 2020, No. 10 UCLA (2-1) defeated New Mexico (2-2) 4-0 Friday afternoon but fell short to UC Santa Barbara (3-0) 4-1 Saturday afternoon at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. The result eliminated the Bruins from contention for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in February and halted the momentum they built off a 7-0 sweep of UC Irvine the previous week.

“It’s early in the year and we so dearly wanted to try to get to that National Indoor Championship,” said coach Billy Martin after the UCSB loss. “We can learn a good lesson – that we have to have that intensity, or else we’re going to have this horrible feeling after a loss like this.”

The reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year No. 53 sophomore Rudy Quan and senior Gianluca Ballotta found themselves down early in their first sets Friday, as their throttles started to stagger. But as the Bruins’ engines ignited, the Lobos’ began to wane as Quan usurped Dario Ciobotaru 6-3, 4-1 and Ballota answered a 2-6 set loss with a 6-0 win.

While UCLA defeated New Mexico 4-0 before the conclusion of these matches, it set a dominant tone heading into the second day of the tournament.

The Lobos previously tallied wins against Idaho and Western New Mexico to begin their season 2-0. New Mexico’s first ranked matchup and loss of the season came behind statement singles victories from No. 75 junior Spencer Johnson with a 6-3, 6-1 result, redshirt freshman Cassius Chinlund with a 6-3, 6-2 tally and freshman Bengt Reinhard’s 6-1, 6-1 win.

“(I was) working on some things that were working this weekend, doing what I can, but I thought it looked pretty good,” Johnson said. “It’s always fun playing at home, especially when you host. We did a lot of work last year to be in this position.”

However, UCSB proved to be a tougher opponent.

Coming off a 4-0 sweep of Pacific, UCSB looked to force UCLA’s throttle to a halt. And following UCSB’s tandem victories to secure the doubles point, it seemed to be doing so.

Quan, Ballotta and junior Andy Nguyen began singles by dropping their first sets, plagued by unforced errors at the baseline. Ultimately, all three fell short after competitive second sets, abruptly closing the pistons of UCLA’s steam engine.

Senior Aadarsh Tripathi defeated Carson Lee 6-1, 6-1, but it was not enough to offset the Guachos’ momentum.

“I’m not really happy that I won, right? Because at the end of the day, we still lost. So yeah, I think we’re going to regroup as a team and talk and figure out what we can do better,” Tripathi said. “Not that we didn’t expect this level out of them, but they played very well. So we’ll come out better next time.”

The schedule ahead remains hectic for UCLA, with an upcoming rivalry matchup at No. 3 Stanford, followed by No. 15 California, No. 22 Pepperdine and No. 21 USC in the Battle for LA.

“I mean, we’re playing all good teams right here on in,” Martin said. “We’ve got to be ready. Stanford may be one of the top-five teams in the country – that’s exciting. I hope the guys will have a feeling like, ‘Hey, we don’t have anything to lose.’”