LOS ANGELES, Calif. – No. 27/23 Sun Devil men's tennis secured the doubles point over No. 14 UCLA for the second season in a row, but eventually fell to the Bruins 4-2 on Friday evening at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
"While we took a loss today, we're continuing to move in the right direction," coach Matt Hill said. "The conversations we're having about what we need to improve on are much more advanced conversations than what we were having two months ago, and that's a good thing."
"We did a good job as a team of being vocal, supporting each other and creating an atmosphere in someone else's back yard," Hill said. "It made it feel like we were in charge of the match, and that's something that you need when you play programs like UCLA that have a rich history."
The tandem of Justin Roberts/Makey Rakotomalala put the Sun Devils on the advantage for the first point with a win on court three, 6-3. Going up 4-0 early, the Devils duo transferred that into an easy win after never playing from a deficit, leaving the clinch down to either pair on the first two courts.
"Them winning took a lot of pressure off the other courts because we went down at break on one right away," Hill said. "Justin and Makey breaking and going up 4-0 early was big."
No. 11 Nathan Ponwith/Dominik Kellovsky battled in a top-15 matchup, facing off against No. 5 Maxime Cressy/Keegan Smith on court one. While the pair from ASU lost two-straight games at the start, they remained competitive until the end through a 4-2 run that saw them at 5-4 late. The Bruin pair eventually came out on top, 6-4, to leave the clinch to court two.
"They did a great job of staying the course and trying to create opportunities on those guys' serves to get back on track which isn't easy," Hill said. "We didn't get too many looks on their return games, but they did a good job of staying focused and staying in the fight."
Andrea Bolla/Tim Ruehl also went up early, pulling out to a 2-1 lead. The Bruins slowed the momentum a little by knotting it up at two, but the Devils duo took the match 6-4 in part by Ruehl's fiercness at the net to secure a 1-0 lead for ASU early.
"Taking the doubles point puts them on their heels right away and let's them know there's a fight in front of them," Hill said. "It was huge today to put ourselves in position to only have to split singles instead of winning four against a team like UCLA."
UCLA quickly shifted the momentum in their favor with singles wins on courts one and two to pull out to a 2-1 lead.
"We've got to do a better job at coming out of the doubles point and staying sharp and hungry, and we're not doing that on all courts in my opinion," Hill said. "When you're playing top teams, you can't give away points whether it's early in the match or not."
Although he fought until the end with several bright spots, Roberts then dropped his match on court three to put the Bruins one point away from clinching the victory.
"Justin was a little hot and cold today, and it's difficult because his opponent is a really good player," Hill said. "You can't give that much away to a player of that caliber because it's going to bite you in the end."
With the bottom three courts still in action, Bolla darted to a straight-sets singles win 6-4, 6-4 to boost ASU's confidence. The win is the third-straight for the Italian that has been playing his best tennis of his career as of late according to Hill.
"He's really starting to get his arms around his concept of play," Hill said. "It's taken some time to get him to be able to translate that into match play and high pressure situations, so it was really good to see from him. He did a really good job today because it was a volatile situation on the back courts there."
The match came down to Ruehl and Rakotomlalala, with the latter taking his first set but ceding the second in a competition tiebreaker second set. Unfazed by the second set loss, the Frenchman came out firing in set three, pulling out to a 3-2 lead but was left unfinished when UCLA clinched the 4-2 win with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win on court four.
"Mak did a fantastic job in that match of continuing to keep doing what he was doing despite dropping his second set in a breaker," Hill said. "It's something he's been working on a lot and it was great to see him do it in a huge situation for us."
The Sun Devils are back in action tomorrow morning against No. 10 USC. Fans can keep up with the action all season-long by following @SunDevilMTennis on Twitter.
"While we took a loss today, we're continuing to move in the right direction," coach Matt Hill said. "The conversations we're having about what we need to improve on are much more advanced conversations than what we were having two months ago, and that's a good thing."
"We did a good job as a team of being vocal, supporting each other and creating an atmosphere in someone else's back yard," Hill said. "It made it feel like we were in charge of the match, and that's something that you need when you play programs like UCLA that have a rich history."
The tandem of Justin Roberts/Makey Rakotomalala put the Sun Devils on the advantage for the first point with a win on court three, 6-3. Going up 4-0 early, the Devils duo transferred that into an easy win after never playing from a deficit, leaving the clinch down to either pair on the first two courts.
"Them winning took a lot of pressure off the other courts because we went down at break on one right away," Hill said. "Justin and Makey breaking and going up 4-0 early was big."
No. 11 Nathan Ponwith/Dominik Kellovsky battled in a top-15 matchup, facing off against No. 5 Maxime Cressy/Keegan Smith on court one. While the pair from ASU lost two-straight games at the start, they remained competitive until the end through a 4-2 run that saw them at 5-4 late. The Bruin pair eventually came out on top, 6-4, to leave the clinch to court two.
"They did a great job of staying the course and trying to create opportunities on those guys' serves to get back on track which isn't easy," Hill said. "We didn't get too many looks on their return games, but they did a good job of staying focused and staying in the fight."
Andrea Bolla/Tim Ruehl also went up early, pulling out to a 2-1 lead. The Bruins slowed the momentum a little by knotting it up at two, but the Devils duo took the match 6-4 in part by Ruehl's fiercness at the net to secure a 1-0 lead for ASU early.
"Taking the doubles point puts them on their heels right away and let's them know there's a fight in front of them," Hill said. "It was huge today to put ourselves in position to only have to split singles instead of winning four against a team like UCLA."
UCLA quickly shifted the momentum in their favor with singles wins on courts one and two to pull out to a 2-1 lead.
"We've got to do a better job at coming out of the doubles point and staying sharp and hungry, and we're not doing that on all courts in my opinion," Hill said. "When you're playing top teams, you can't give away points whether it's early in the match or not."
Although he fought until the end with several bright spots, Roberts then dropped his match on court three to put the Bruins one point away from clinching the victory.
"Justin was a little hot and cold today, and it's difficult because his opponent is a really good player," Hill said. "You can't give that much away to a player of that caliber because it's going to bite you in the end."
With the bottom three courts still in action, Bolla darted to a straight-sets singles win 6-4, 6-4 to boost ASU's confidence. The win is the third-straight for the Italian that has been playing his best tennis of his career as of late according to Hill.
"He's really starting to get his arms around his concept of play," Hill said. "It's taken some time to get him to be able to translate that into match play and high pressure situations, so it was really good to see from him. He did a really good job today because it was a volatile situation on the back courts there."
The match came down to Ruehl and Rakotomlalala, with the latter taking his first set but ceding the second in a competition tiebreaker second set. Unfazed by the second set loss, the Frenchman came out firing in set three, pulling out to a 3-2 lead but was left unfinished when UCLA clinched the 4-2 win with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win on court four.
"Mak did a fantastic job in that match of continuing to keep doing what he was doing despite dropping his second set in a breaker," Hill said. "It's something he's been working on a lot and it was great to see him do it in a huge situation for us."
The Sun Devils are back in action tomorrow morning against No. 10 USC. Fans can keep up with the action all season-long by following @SunDevilMTennis on Twitter.