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The Bruin doubles pairing of senior Chris Lam and freshman Mathieu Dehaine helped No. 7 UCLA swee

Ask anyone associated with the UCLA men’s tennis team if they’re happy to be 15-2 at this point in the season, and you’ll get a conflicted answer.

Sure, 15 wins against two losses is an impressive record, but it’s the manner in which one of those losses happened that is so frustrating.

“I’m happy to be 15-2,” UCLA coach Billy Martin said. “To me, I still don’t think we should have lost that match to ’SC. The thought of it really irks me. Not just because we lost, but how we lost. I felt that we were in such control.”

Martin felt that way because the position they were in was to win. In that March 1 match at USC, the Bruins won the doubles point and the first set in four of six singles matches. Then it all came crashing down, as the Trojans seized control and sprung the upset, 5-2.

“Obviously that ’SC loss was really bad,” said sophomore Benjamin Kohlloeffel, who has been the most consistent player for the No. 7 Bruins this season.

That loss really is the theme for UCLA at this point in the season, with its only other loss coming to No. 2 Virginia in the quarterfinals of the National Team Indoors. In the team’s 15 wins, the Bruins have only really been challenged once, a 4-3 victory over Stanford at home. The team’s last match was a 7-0 drubbing of Virginia Commonwealth last Wednesday that saw the 14th-ranked Kohlloeffel register a 6-0, 6-2 win over Arnaud Lecloerec, ranked No. 13 in the country.

Any discussion of UCLA men’s tennis, however, comes down to the USC match and the belief that it won’t happen again.

“In some ways I hope it motivated us, and we’re going to get better because of it,” Martin said. “If anything, we’re really looking forward to another chance at them.”

That chance will come on April 15, when the Trojans visit the Los Angeles Tennis Center. It’s a date that sophomore Philipp Gruendler has circled in his mind.

“I think there’s extra motivation, especially when they come here,” he said.

In the meantime, everyone on the team will simply be trying to get better, addressing individual weaknesses to help forge a better collective unit.

“Everyone knows what they have to work on, so we should be fine,” said Gruendler, who readily admits that he hasn’t been as effective this year as he was last season.

The ultimate goal, then, is to have everyone playing his best tennis when the NCAA Tournament arrives in mid-May.

“At the NCAAs, you really have to be at your peak, because you can lose to anybody,” Kohlloeffel said.

After finals, the Bruins host the Arizona schools, followed by Washington and Oregon the next week, and then they will head up to the Bay Area.

The team finishes its conference schedule with a match that everyone has been eagerly awaiting since March 1.

“That keeps motivating us, making us want to get tougher and better,” Martin said. “I won’t feel really good until we play them here and hopefully get a victory.”