UCLA
Duke
No. 10 UCLA Hosts Duke in Midweek Clash
March 15, 2017 | Men's Tennis
LOS ANGELES โ With a convincing win over No. 9 Baylor in the books, the UCLA men's tennis team climbed to No. 10 in the latest ITA/Oracle rankings, released Tuesday. The Bruins will look to remain undefeated at Sunset Canyon Tennis Courts when they host Duke on Thursday, March 16.
UCLA's match with the Blue Devils will come a week to the day of the Bruins' loss to crosstown rival and then-No. 14 USC. The Trojans swept the first two matches in doubles play and secured the day's first point. No. 11 Gage Brymer of the Bruins earned UCLA a point in singles play with a win over USC's Nick Crystal on Court 2, but the Trojans otherwise controlled the day's action with a 4-1 win.
Two days later, the Bruins responded against a Baylor team that had won five matches in a row and showed three ranked players. The team of Maxime Cressy and Ben Goldberg made its first win of dual-match play count, as it defeated the Bears' duo of Johannes Schretter and Jimmy Bendeck, 6-3, to clinch the doubles point. Logan Staggs (6-1, 6-4 over Will Little), No. 42 Martin Redlicki (6-4, 6-2 over No. 35 Max Tchoutakian) and, in the clincher, Brymer (6-4, 6-2 over No. 15 Juan Benitez), posted straight-set wins to break Baylor's streak. Tchoutakian's singles loss was his first of the dual-match season, while the Bears' failure to score a single point was a first on the team's campaign.
In Duke, the Bruins (9-4) will face a team that is unranked, but holds an 8-5 record and previous experience against ranked opponents. All five of the Blue Devils' losses have come to ITA/Oracle top-17 teams. From Feb. 12-March 4, Duke defeated five opponents by a combined score of 30-2. Then, in ACC matchups with No. 5 North Carolina and No. 2 Wake Forest, the Blue Devils fell by scores of 6-1 and 5-2, respectively.
The Blue Devils are represented by two players in the latest ITA/Oracle singles rankings (released March 7). Junior Nicolas Alvarez checks in at No. 17, while freshman Nick Stachowiak is just inside the top 100 at No. 94. The doubles team of Vincent Lin and Catalin Mateas is No. 72. Bruin rankings remain the same, as Brymer (No. 11) and Redlicki (42) are ranked in singles, while the team of Redlicki-Evan Zhu is No. 26 in doubles.
The Bruins hold a 15-3 all-time record against the Blue Devils. Most recently, UCLA and Duke met in the quarterfinal round of the 2013 NCAA Tournament, where the Bruins recorded a 4-0 win on its way to a finals appearance.
Players Mentioned
