| Men’s Tennis |
|---|
| UCLA — 4 |
| Michigan — 2 |
As opposed to playing under picturesque, sunny southern California skies, a trip to Michigan entails a match played indoors, where the Ann Arbor weather is prevented from distracting players away from the real foe: their opponents.
No. 20 UCLA men’s tennis (12-3, 6-0 Big Ten) defeated Michigan (7-8, 3-4 Big Ten) on Friday afternoon at Varsity Tennis center to win their seventh consecutive match.
The Bruins remain undefeated in Big Ten play, improving to six wins in six conference matches.
The No. 32 doubles pair of junior Spencer Johnson and redshirt junior Emon van Loben Sels lived up to their ranking, defeating Max Dahlin and Pierce Shaya in a 6-3 set. The doubles point was clinched by the duo of junior Andy Nguyen and senior Aadarsh Tripathi, who took their set 6-4 to bump the Bruins to a 1-0 lead.
In singles action, redshirt freshman Cassius Chinland, recently honored as the Big Ten Freshman of the Week for his two singles clinches against Wisconsin and Nebraska, padded UCLA’s lead by dismantling Alex Cairo in straight sets, 6-3 and 6-0.
However, the Wolverines wouldn’t roll over easily, as No. 10 Dahlin secured his tenth singles match in a row after defeating No. 66 Johnson 6-4 and 6-2, earning his team’s first point of the day.
No. 33 van Loben Sels comfortably handled his match, helping the Bruins to the edge of victory after a straight sets win of his own. Again, however, UCLA’s momentum was halted after Nguyen lost in two sets to Nicholas Steiglehner, setting the team score at 3-2 in favor of the Bruins.
Given the opportunity to clinch his first collegiate match, freshman Bengt Reinhard seized it by the horns, putting down Shaya 6-3 and 6-4 to secure a 4-2 victory for his team.
UCLA will remain in Michigan to face the awaiting Michigan State Spartans, who also own a perfect Big Ten record, on Sunday, March 29 at 9:00 a.m. PST.
