Women’s tennis hits the road to face No. 9 Cal and a No. 1 Stanford team that hasn’t lost at home in 12 years
Senior Andrea Remynse and the UCLA women’s tennis team will face No. 9 Cal today. The No. 5 Bruins will then play No. 1 Stanford on Saturday.
Women’s Tennis
California
Today, 1:30 p.m.
Berkeley, Calif.
No TV
No. 5 UCLA heads north for its first pair of dual road meets this season with No. 9 California Friday and No. 1 Stanford Saturday.
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 4, 2011 12:58 a.m.
The warm-up period is over. The chance to iron out any remaining kinks before the going gets tough has passed.
For the UCLA women’s tennis team, the real season begins this weekend with back-to-back Northern California matchups against California and Stanford.
The No. 5 Bruins (4-0) proved that they are head and shoulders above the less illustrious competition in California by handling No. 40 Saint Mary’s, Loyola Marymount, No. 67 San Diego and Sacramento State 5-2, 7-0, 4-0 and 4-0, respectively. But what lies ahead for the Bruins will be a much more accurate measure of their true level of play relative to other national powers.
“We’re definitely going to be tested, and (Cal and Stanford) are going to be tested,” coach Stella Sampras Webster said. “I think we’re going to find out where our teams are at.”
Both the No. 9 Golden Bears and No. 1 Cardinal have yet to lose, but, like their rivals to the south, have not exactly played against world beaters. California (2-0) is coming off of home wins over Saint Mary’s and North Texas, and Stanford (3-0) has bested UC Davis, No. 65 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and No. 39 Oklahoma so far, also all at home.
One thing is for certain: This set of matches will be the most difficult challenge to date for all parties involved.
Freshman Courtney Dolehide is unfazed, despite never having played a road match in her short UCLA career.
“I’m really not trying to think of that,” Dolehide said of her first taste of Pac-10 tennis. “I try to treat every match the same way and focus on our next competition.”
UCLA’s matchup with the Golden Bears in Berkeley last year was canceled because of rain, but the Bruins secured a tough 4-3 victory at the Los Angeles Tennis Center thanks to a clutch performance by then-junior Andrea Remynse that broke the 3-3 deadlock.
“We don’t want to underestimate Cal,” Remynse said. “They’ve got some new players that none of us have seen, so we need to be ready for anything.”
Stanford, aside from being defending national champions and the top-ranked team in the nation, has not dropped a match at home going on 12 years, the longest such streak in NCAA Division I athletics. The Bruins, however, did hand the Cardinal their sole loss of 2010, a somewhat surprising 6-1 thrashing in the first of their two matchups.
Despite stressing at practice Wednesday that the team’s focus was on beating the Golden Bears, Dolehide and Remynse both admitted that spoiling the Cardinal’s fun would be an added bonus.
Sampras Webster declined to speculate, but did express her admiration for Stanford’s achievements.
“It’s very impressive,” Sampras Webster said. “They definitely deserve the recognition. They have great support. They’re a great team and they play really well at home. It’s going to be challenging.”
