New doubles pairings bring varied success
By Daniel Khayat
Jan. 19, 2009 11:00 p.m.
The No. 3 UCLA women’s tennis team split up to play in two final preseason tune-ups over the weekend. It appears their success was divided as well.
Four members of the team headed to Palm Desert to compete in the National Collegiate Tennis Classic with coach Stella Sampras Webster while the other five set off for Las Vegas with associate head coach Rance Brown to take part in the Freeman Memorial Championships at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Junior Yasmin Schnack and sophomore Andrea Remynse won the doubles draw at the NCTC in Palm Springs, beating Stanford’s Hillary Barte and Lindsey Burdette by the score of 9-8 in the final.
Both Schnack and Remynse also reached the quarterfinals of the NCTC singles draw before being eliminated.
“(Winning the doubles draw) was huge because I’d never played with Andrea before,” said Schnack, who called the pairing an experiment more than anything else. “We have great chemistry together. Our games mesh well and we proved that we’re definitely a No. 1 doubles team.”
Sampras Webster seems to agree, as Remynse and Schnack, two key veterans from last year’s national championship squad, will indeed start the season as the Bruins’ No. 1 doubles team. The No. 2 spot will likely be filled by senior Ashley Joelson and freshman Carling Seguso, with junior Stephanie Wetmore and sophomore Maya Johansson taking the No. 3 spot.
Also competing in the NCTC were Wetmore, Johansson, and freshman Jordan Dockendorf.
“It was good preparation to have some more work, especially for doubles,” said Johansson, a transfer from Georgia Tech. “I didn’t play a lot of doubles before (I came to UCLA), so I started playing doubles here, basically. (My doubles partners) and I needed to find out how to play together, so it was really useful to have these tournaments to see what our strengths and weaknesses are.”
Sampras Webster said that she was pleased with the way her players competed over the weekend.
“It was great to see them play and see where we’re at right now,” Sampras Webster said. “(Schnack and Remynse) definitely had the best results of anyone that was there (at the Palm Springs tournament), (but) everyone else got a lot of matches in, and everyone won matches.”
On the other hand, no UCLA player advanced past the first round of their respective draws at the Freeman Memorial. Joelson, Seguso, and freshman Nina Pantic were eliminated in the first round of the flight-one singles draw, and senior Ana Victoria Lind was knocked out in the first round of play in flight two.
However, Pantic and Lind did manage to reach the semifinals of the flight two doubles draw.
“The preseason doesn’t really say much for us, because even last year, we didn’t really do well in the preseason,” Schnack said. “We lost four seniors, but we have a couple good freshmen and we’re starting to get our doubles teams together. I have a lot of confidence in our team and I think we’ll do well.”
The Bruins start their regular season tomorrow against the Cal State Northridge Matadors at 1:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
PANTIC TO SIT OUT: The Bruins will be without Pantic for the first six weeks of the season due to eligibility issues stemming from her involvement in professional tournaments after having committed to UCLA.
Sampras Webster said that Pantic took monetary winnings from the tournaments, which by NCAA rules deems her ineligible for half a season.
Pantic was eligible to compete in preseason tournaments because they do not count towards the team’s NCAA record.
“[Pantic] won’t be able to compete with us for the first half of the season, so as for our depth, it may take us a little while to be at our best,” Sampras Webster said. “The best teams in the country are the ones that have depth, so we’ve got to see how deep we are, and I think once we start competing we’re going to find out.”
Pantic is scheduled to return in time for the Bruins’ home matchup against the USC Trojans on March 4.
