W. tennis pounce on Wildcats

Monday, May 20, 1996

Bruins reach semis with upset against No. 4 ArizonaBy Hye
Kwon

Daily Bruin Staff

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — They say that when it comes time for the
playoffs, you can just throw away what happened during the regular
season. This was especially true Sunday evening as the UCLA women’s
tennis team upset fourth-ranked Arizona in the NCAA quarterfinals,
avenging two Pacific 10 dual match losses earlier this year.

With the 5-2 win, the Bruins advance to the semifinals where
they will take on No. 1 Florida this afternoon at the Scott
Speicher Tennis Center on the campus of Florida State
University.

The sixth-ranked Bruins, who played their finest match in many
months on Sunday, couldn’t have picked a better time for their
resurgence. Keri Phebus, in particular, showed everyone why she is
the defending national champion. Against Vicki Maes, the top-ranked
player in the nation, Phebus broke serve on six different occasions
en route to a 7-5, 6-3 victory.

With Phebus leading the way, UCLA jumped out to a 4-2 lead going
into doubles. After that, it was simply a matter of time before the
Bruins recorded the decisive doubles victory.

Stephanie Chi was the hero of the match for UCLA, notching a
victory in singles in addition to the straight-set doubles victory
that clinched the match for the Bruins. This would be the second
night in a row that Chi teamed up with Brandi Freudenberg to win
the decisive match for UCLA.

"Having played Arizona twice already this season, we had a game
plan for each and every match," UCLA assistant coach Stella Sampras
said. "We were so close the last time we played them, so we knew
that we had a chance to win at every position."

Battling the scorching sun as well as their opponents for the
second-straight day, the Bruins almost didn’t get the chance to
upset the Wildcats. In Saturday’s first-round match, UCLA split six
singles matches and needed two doubles wins against Vanderbilt.

Phebus and Paige Yaroshuk quickly defeated Vanderbilt’s Kim
Schiff and Meredith Chiles 6-4, 6-2, but the rest of the Bruins
struggled to notch the decisive victory. After more than seven
hours after the dual match began, Chi and Freudenberg finally
turned out the lights on the Commodores with a 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5)
against Sarah Brown and Callie Creighton.

Having played so many hours of tennis in the hot and humid
conditions, the Bruins have a tall task ahead of them in the
semifinals. Undefeated Florida has had it relatively easy so far,
destroying both Oklahoma State and Wisconsin by the score of 5-0 in
both matches.

The Lady Gators have an answer to Phebus in fourth-ranked Jill
Craybas, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Sixth-ranked Dawn
Buth holds down the No. 2 singles position for the Lady Gators. As
impressive a 1-2 punch as Craybas and Buth are, the team’s depth
from No. 3-6 is just as crucial to Florida’s success. They are all
ranked in the top 50 and will give the young Bruins at the latter
half of the lineup a tremendous challenge.

As far as head-to-head competition is concerned, the two teams
met earlier this season at the National Indoor Tournament, where
UCLA suffered a 5-3 loss. Despite the loss, the Bruins brought back
confidence that they could compete with Florida and could even beat
them with a stellar performance.

"Over the years, we’ve had some absolute wars with Florida,"
UCLA head coach Bill Zaima said. "It’s always rocking and rolling
every time we play them and this is only the 1996 installment of
our fierce rivalry."

FRED HE/Daily Bruin

Sophomore netter Stephanie Chi, teaming up with freshman Brandi
Freudenberg, clinched both UCLA victories at the NCAA
Championships. The Bruins next take on Florida in the
semifinals.