W. tennis forced to step up

W. tennis forced to step up

Bruins will face toughest competition yet as they head to
National Indoor Tourney

By Hye Kwon

Daily Bruin Staff

Call it a mid-term exam. Call it a gut check. Call it what you
desire but one thing is for sure as the UCLA women’s tennis team
travels to Madison, Wisc. today to compete in the National Indoor
Tournament: the seventh-ranked Bruins will have to step up a notch
if they want to have any type of success.

It’s been relatively easy sailing for the Bruins, who have not
yet played a higher-ranked opponent. With the exception of the
Arizona loss and the tough Pepperdine victory, UCLA has been
beating its inferior opponents like rented mules. As the Bruins
begin play in the Nielsen Tennis Center this afternoon, that
scenario will likely dissipate.

Florida, Stanford, Duke, and Brigham Young are the four seeded
teams, and the rest of the field isn’t exactly a cakewalk either.
In the top half of the draw, unseeded teams like Arizona,
Pepperdine and California, will give Stanford and BYU a run for
their money. The unseeded Bruins find themselves in the bottom half
of the draw, along with Florida, Duke, Wisconsin and William and
Mary.

"This is a big tournament that we’ve been waiting for a long
time," UCLA assistant coach Stella Sampras said. "It will be a big
challenge for us in Madison."

In the first round of play, which will begin this afternoon at
2:30 p.m., the Bruins will draw No. 12 South Carolina. The Lady
Gamecocks bring in a record of 4-1, with the only blemish coming
from the battle with eighth-ranked Wake Forest. USC is led by
junior Heather Greene, who was ranked No. 17 prior to the start of
the season.

Since then, Greene has won just six matches while accumulating
seven losses and dropped out of the rankings altogether.

The most successful of the Lady Gamecocks has been Celine
Regnier who has a record of 4-1 at the No. 2 spot. Regnier will do
battle against UCLA’s Paige Yaroshuk, who struggled in her last
outing against Pepperdine, suffering losses in both singles and
doubles.

The match format utilized at Wisconsin will be different from
the usual best five-out-of-nine format. Just one point will be up
for grabs in the three doubles matches. This format makes the
singles much more important because as four wins cinches the
victory.

In addition to the unusual format, the teams will have to adjust
to the rigorous schedule used at the tournament. The two teams that
will meet in the championship finals on Sunday morning will be
playing their fourth match in four days.

In that regard, the Bruins might have an advantage over some of
their competitors. Last week, UCLA played against UC-Irvine, Nevada
Las Vegas, and Pepperdine in three consecutive days. The schedule
took its toll as UCLA was almost drowned by the Waves on
Saturday.

However, the Bruin coaching staff feels that the team has
benefitted greatly from the weekend and is confident of its chances
to win it all in Madison.

"We have a tough week coming up, but we feel pretty good," UCLA
assistant coach Stella Sampras said. "We got a lot of confidence
from last weekend because we were able to beat a good Pepperdine
team at the end."Comments to [email protected]