Cracked Racquets has been hard at work getting you ready for the coming college tennis season via our College Tennis Contenders series. Once a week, we take time to dissect one of the top 10 preseason teams. This week, we take an extensive look at the #5 ranked UCLA Bruins.

Billy Martin’s UCLA Bruins enter the 2018 season with strong recruits and plenty of returning talent that is ready for another shot at the PAC-12 Championship after a crushing loss to USC in the Finals last season. Tough matches throughout the regular season will continually test UCLA up to the PAC-12 Championship and NCAA Finals. A deep run last year is telling of the elite talent UCLA brings to the table, but do they have the ability to make a finals run?

UCLA Lineup

Lucas Bellamy, FR

Maxime Cressy, JR

Ben Goldberg, SO

Connor Hance, FR

Bryce Pereira, FR

Reid Ponder, RS FR

Austin Rapp, SR

Connor Rapp, RS FR

Martin Redlicki, SR

Reid Shumway, JR

Keegan Smith, FR

Logan Staggs, SR

Evan Zhu, SO

Outlook

No one can deny the rich history of the UCLA Men’s Tennis program. The team has produced 92 All-American, 21 ITA Hall of Fame inductees, 12 NCAA singles champions, 12 NCAA Doubles champions, and 16 NCAA Team champions. From legends Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, and Peter Fleming to recent NCAA champions Benjamin Kohlloeffel and Marcos Giron, the Bruins have set a standard of excellence for all teams in the college tennis community to aspire to.

One of the biggest constants through it all: UCLA alum and current Head Coach Billy Martin. Entering his 25th season in the role, Martin has now spent more than half of his life, over 36 years, as a part of the Bruins’ program. He has helped coach 27 players to All-American seasons, six players to individual NCAA titles, and brought home one NCAA title in his capacity as the UCLA Head Coach. His teams have also dominated Pac-12 play, capturing 12 conference titles and having never finished outside of the top three during Martin’s tenure.

And, yet, given the amount of top-level talent that has passed through Westwood, one could definitely argue that the past decade of the “Billy Martin Era” has been slightly disappointing. Part of the disappointment stems from the domination of rival and fellow LA school, USC. The website for the Tennis Recruiting Network contains an archive of the top ranked NCAA men’s recruiting classes dating all the way to 2006. During the span, UCLA has finished with a top 3 recruiting class on four separate occasions, all of which occurred after 2009.

UCLA finished the regular season 18-4, and advanced to the PAC-12 tournament finals to face round three with USC. In one of the best matches of the year, the Bruins pushed the Trojans to the limit. Despite dropping the doubles point, UCLA received a quick win from Redlicki at the top of the lineup, but then dropped the next match at #5 singles and Gage Brymer fell to Southern Cal’s Brandon Holt. Alas, USC was ultimately the better team.

With this hard fought match and loss certainly still relatively fresh in mind, we know the Bruins are making a win against USC a priority this year. Elite talent and strong coaching are sure to keep UCLA in the top 10 throughout this season.

UCLA 2018 Schedule

The Bruins start the 2018 season with a home matchup against UC Davis for the ITA Kickoff Weekend before travelling to Stanford in early February. This is the first of two key match ups against the 16th ranked Stanford and is an early test of the Bruins squad this year. The month of March takes UCLA to the Pacific Coast Doubles Championship followed by a tough matchup against #24 Oregon to start a series of road matches. The Bruins end the regular season with the second of two matches against USC and road games against Arizona State and University of Arizona in Tucson. The PAC-12 Championships will take place between April 25 and April 29th. Expect UCLA to be a top contender.

Download UCLA’s match schedule.

What’s Your Take?

We know we’re the experts (ha!) and all, but to change the pace, we want your predictions on UCLA this year. Leave your thoughts in the comment section below. Our team will will review all comments, and the best predictions/hottest takes/most interesting comments will be added into a new section of this preview on Friday.

Don’t be shy, folks!