UCLA
Stanford
Bruins Host Cardinal in Return Home
February 23, 2017 | Men's Tennis
LOS ANGELES -- The No. 15 UCLA men's tennis team will host No. 35 Stanford at the Sunset Canyon Tennis Courts (1:00 p.m.) Saturday. The match will mark the second non-conference meeting with a Pac-12 opponent in as many weeks. The Bruins previously defeated USC in the first round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on Feb. 17.
UCLA returns home for the first time in nearly a month, when they hosted New Mexico and Lamar at the ITA Kick-Off event (Jan. 28-29). Since then, the Bruins have traveled to Gainesville, Fla. for the Pac-12/SEC Showdown (Feb. 4-5), Tulsa, Okla. to take on the University of Tulsa (Feb. 13) and Charlottesville, Va. for the ITA Indoors (Feb. 17-19). Each of the previous six opponents rank in the latest ITA/Oracle top 50, while five of the six sit in the top 17. The Bruins went 3-3 in matches against those teams.
The highlight of the Bruins' recent trip to the ITA Indoors was their dramatic victory over rival USC in first-round play. After it dropped the doubles point, UCLA immediately responded with the first two victories in singles play. From there, the teams traded the next three points to put the clinching decision on Court 1. After he dropped the opening set on an 8-6 tiebreaker, Martin Redlicki captured the next two to clinch the victory, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-4.
Redlicki eventually dropped his first singles match of the dual-match season, a 4-6, 3-6 decision to California's Florian Lakat in the Bruins' consolation-match loss to the Golden Bears, but he did see his singles ranking rise in the latest ITA/Oracle polls. The junior settled in at No. 45 in Tuesday's unveiling, while Gage Brymer moved up to No. 10 and Maxime Cressy checked in at No. 116. In doubles, the team of Redlicki and Evan Zhu is ranked No. 24.
In Stanford, the Bruins will welcome a team that features the nation's No. 24 doubles team in Yale Goldberg and Sameer Kumar, as well as three ranked singles players, No. 12 Tom Fawcett, No. 73 Michael Genender and No. 77 Jack Barber.
The Cardinal, which checks in at 6-1 on the season, will be playing its first two true road matches when it comes to Los Angeles this weekend. Before meeting the Bruins Saturday, Stanford will take on No. 12 USC at Marks Stadium Friday (3:00 p.m.).
UCLA holds a 69-50 all-time record versus Stanford. The Bruins defeated the Cardinal at four different stages of the 2016 season—in non-conference play (4-3, Feb. 27 at Stanford), in conference play (4-1, Apr. 1 at UCLA), in the Pac-12 Tournament (4-1, Apr. 22) and in the NCAA Tournament (4-2, May 20).
Players Mentioned
