Following a 2-0 opening week at Sunset Canyon Tennis Courts, the No. 7 UCLA men's tennis team remains home, where it will host New Mexico and either Boise State or Lamar in the ITA National Indoors Qualifying Tournament.
The No. 7 Bruins are coming off a 2-0 opening week in which they swept Grand Canyon, 7-0, and held off UC Santa Barbara, 5-2. Against GCU, UCLA secured 15 of 17 sets, capped by a 6-2, 6-2 victory by 11th-ranked senior Gage Brymer, who was announced Monday as Pac-12 Player of the Week. After the Bruins lost the doubles point versus UCSB, junior Austin Rapp and senior Joseph Di Giulio recorded straight-set victories to reestablish momentum. With Martin Redlicki in a heated battle with the Gauchos' 96th-ranked Martin Mays—which the Bruin junior ultimately won in three sets—Brymer again clinched victory with a 3,6, 6-1, 6-2 decision versus Nicolas Moreno de Alboran.
This weekend, UCLA will begin play at 2:00 Saturday against a 0-3 New Mexico team. The Lobos dropped three matches in two days at the USTA National Tennis Complex from Jan. 14-Jan.15. Sunday, the Bruins will with either face Boise State, which features 51st-ranked doubles team Jack Heslin and Kyle Butters, or a Lamar team that sits at 2-1 after it secured two home victories versus Alcorn State last weekend. Live stats will be available at uclabruins.com.
In the most recent Oracle/ITA Men's National Singles Rankings, Brymer is ranked No. 11, while sophomore Maxime Cressy checks in at No. 87 and Di Giulio at Nn. 90.
Women'sAfter rain washed away the Bruins' opener last Friday, No. 25 UCLA headed to Loyola Marymount Saturday and came out victorious versus the Lions, 5-2. This week, the team travels to Atlanta, Ga., where it will participate in the ITA National Indoors Qualifying Tournament as one of three ranked teams in the field.
While Saturday represented the UCLA's 2017 team debut, it also marked the first dual match as Bruins for fourth-ranked freshman Ena Shibahara, redshirt freshman Jada Hart and sophomore Gabby Andrews. The ninth-ranked doubles tandem of Hart and Shibahara began scoring when it clinched the doubles point from Jessica Perez and Elvira Juravliova, 6-2. In singles play, Shibahara defeated Perez 6-2, 6-4, before Bruin junior Kristin Wiley clinched the win against Micheline Aubuchon, 6-3, 6-2. With the match already decided, Hart and Andrews fought to narrow three-set defeats.
Saturday pits the Bruins against the No. 20 Kentucky Wildcats, a team that features the top-ranked doubles team in Aldila Sutjiadi and Mami Adachi. Sutjiadi is also ranked 12th as a singles player. Also in the field is No. 11 Georgia Tech, which is 2-0 after wins versus Portland, 7-0, and Oregon, 6-1, and Penn, a team that will be making its 2017 dual-match debut this weekend.
In the most recent Oracle/ITA Women's National Singles Rankings, Shibahara checks in at No. 4. The duo of Hart and Shibahara ranks No. 9 on the doubles side.