UCLA
California
No. 7 UCLA Holds Off California 4-2
February 08, 2019 | Men's Tennis
LOS ANGELES โ The No. 7 UCLA men's tennis team fought back from a lost doubles point to defeat California 4-2 Saturday in a non-conference match at Los Angeles Tennis Center.
Govind Nanda notched his third dual-match singles victory in as many tries, doing so in a clinching fashion. Freshmen Nanda and Patrick Zahraj were in third sets at the time of completion. Keegan Smith, Ben Goldberg and Maxime Cressy also turned in singles wins for the Bruins (3-0).
The freshman clinches it! Nanda holds at 5-4 deuce to win his match 6-3, 2-6, 6-4
โ UCLA Men's Tennis (@uclatennis) February 9, 2019
The Bruins defeat the Golden Bears, 4??-2?? pic.twitter.com/DgJh63AvRD
Cal (1-3) took control of Courts 2 and 3 early in doubles play, which was necessary with the UCLA tandem of Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith rolling along on the top court. The pair received little challenge from the combination of Jacob Brumm and Yuta Kikuchi, blanking the eighth-ranked pair to give the Bruins an early edge.
Once trailing 5-1 to the 17th-ranked Golden Bear duo of Paul Barretto and Can Kaya on Court 2, Goldberg and Nanda took two games in a row to threaten. The Cal pair was ultimately too much, though, winning 6-3 to put the pressure on Court 3.
UCLA's team of Zahraj-Bryce Pereira was in the thick of a back-and-forth affair with Jack Molloy and Mert Zincirli, at one instance holding serve to pull even at 5-5. The Golden Bears held on a deuce point and the Bruins were unable to force a tiebreaking 13th game as Cal broke through first.
Smith came out firing on all cylinders in singles action, as the sophomore dealt Brumm a 6-3, 6-1 loss to pull the Bruins even. The win improved his overall record to 11-3 and 3-0 in dual matches.
Cal would answer on Court 5, where Bjorn Hoffmann kept Mathew Tsolakyan at a distance en route to a 6-3, 6-2 win and 2-1 Golden Bear lead.
Knowing the Bruins needed a win on the bottom courts, veteran Ben Goldberg took it upon himself to get it done. The junior dropped two of the first three games on Court 6, but settled in to give UCLA a first-set win. Ben Draper countered in the second by taking four of the first six games, but Goldberg answered again. Four games later, the Pacific Palisades, Calif. native had a 6-4, 6-4 win and the Bruins had knowledge that two more wins would seal the deal.
Cressy put UCLA one step closer with his third straight-set win of the dual-match season. The senior dropped the first two games against Paul Barretto, but worked his way back to a 6-4 first-set win. There was no stopping Cressy at that point, as he took the second set 6-1 to make it 3-2.
In the highest-pressure situation of his young dual-match career, Nanda stepped up on Court 3. The Redlands, Calif. native doubled up Molloy in the first set, only to have the Golden Bear answer with a 6-2 second. Nanda did not fade, though, keeping Molloy at arm's length throughout the final set, ultimately closing the deal at 6-4. He improved to 3-0 in dual matches with the win.
UCLA will be back at it Saturday when No. 10 Stanford visits LATC for a non-conference match. First serve between the longtime rivals is set for 2 p.m.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,2,3
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
2,5,6,1,3
Players Mentioned
