UCLA womens’ tennis readies to host Arizona rivals
Senior Yasmin Schnack and the Bruins will face Arizona at the Los Angeles Tennis Center today at 1:30 p.m. UCLA will look to put in a solid outing against the Wildcats after a tough weekend that saw them lose to Stanford and have a match cancelled.
By Daniel Khayat
April 8, 2010 9:13 p.m.
The past weekend was one of disappointments for the UCLA women’s tennis team.
The No. 7 Bruins lost to No. 12 Stanford Saturday while UCLA’s match against No. 11 California was ultimately cancelled. The two teams will make up the match at the end of the season if it has any bearing on the final Pac-10 standings.
However, the Bruins (16-3, 3-1 Pac-10) will look to ease the hurt of last week with successful outings against No. 56 Arizona (12-6, 1-4) and No. 21 Arizona State (12-3, 4-1) today and Saturday, respectively.
“I think our team understands how important it is to be ready for (Arizona and Arizona State),” coach Stella Sampras Webster said. “(Arizona State) has beaten Cal and USC already so they’re a strong team, and we’ve got to be prepared for that.”
The matchup with the Sun Devils could be particularly interesting, with numerous storylines from last season still fresh in the minds of the players and coaches. The Bruins won all three matches, including the NCAA Tournament second-round matchup, by a 4-3 margin.
“I think we match up pretty well against them,” Sampras Webster said. “They definitely have some strong singles players and they have some depth. They have very strong players playing the one, two and three positions and so do we, so one, two and three are going to be very competitive matches. Our depth will hopefully help us.”
UCLA senior Yasmin Schnack and Arizona State junior Kelcy McKenna held three fierce battles at the No. 1 position last season. In the first matchup at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on March 12, 2009, McKenna handed Schnack her first singles loss of the year, but Schnack returned the favor in Tempe, Ariz. on April 10, 2009 by winning the deciding match 6-7, 7-6, 7-6.
Despite Schnack’s heroics in Tempe, it was the play of sophomore Nina Pantic in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the LATC on May 10, 2009 that saved the Bruins from a looming upset and sent them to the Round of 16.
Down 4-6, 3-5 to then-senior Laila Abdala with the Bruins and Sun Devils knotted at 3-3, Pantic won 10 straight games and dropped only two points in the third set in one of the most dominant and clutch performances in UCLA women’s tennis history.
Abdala has since graduated and Pantic has not appeared in the Bruins’ singles lineup in several matches, but the hard feelings between the two sides from the three hotly-contested encounters from a season ago could certainly resurface this weekend.
“That was a huge match that we were able to pull off last year,” Sampras Webster said. “It was definitely a match that I think ASU felt they should have won. But they’ve got some new players, we’ve got new players on our team. But I’m sure some of them will be thinking about that match when we play them on Saturday.”
The Bruins had a much easier time with the Wildcats last year, defeating them 4-2 in their only meeting last year thanks to singles wins from Schnack, Pantic, sophomore Carling Seguso and then-junior Stephanie Wetmore. Doubles play was cancelled because of rain.
“I think we have a lot more depth than (Arizona),” Sampras Webster said. “We should fare pretty well against Arizona based on their results. We’re definitely not going to take them lightly, but we expect to go into that match pretty confident that our team will do well.”
