Trip to Pepperdine could be what UCLA women's tennis needs to recover after disappointing Indoors performance
By Jason Wang
Feb. 24, 2011 7:03 p.m.
After a disappointing weekend, the UCLA women’s tennis team heads to Malibu to recuperate from losing two out of three matches at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
But the No. 11 Bruins (7-4) will not be utilizing the sun and surf to get over the recent defeats. Instead, they will look for a win against Pepperdine today to get them back to their winning ways.
“There’s definitely a lot of re-evaluating that needs to happen,” sophomore Pamela Montez said following the Indoor Championships. “We’ve got to just get back out there, and we’re going to try to figure things out.”
The team’s performance at Indoors, scarred by a first-round defeat to Clemson, brought attention to some weaknesses, including a particularly prominent one that has plagued the Bruins so far this season. After struggling with the doubles point earlier in the season, UCLA actually won the points in both of its weekend losses. The doubles players, however, lost in the lone win against Miami. Coach Stella Sampras Webster said that the team needs to continue improving on doubles play.
“I can tell after watching them play (at the indoor tournament) that they’re getting better,” Sampras Webster said of her players. “But we’re still not at where we need to be.”
All three of UCLA’s opponents in the tournament were ranked higher than No. 15 nationally, and the Bruins had their fair share of tough opponents in singles play. The Bruins hung tough but were unable to close out many of the matches: In their loss to then-No. 3 Baylor, three matches went to three sets and three set points were decided by tiebreakers.
“As we move forward, we all need to focus on the really important points: the 30-all points, the deuce points and tiebreaks,” senior Noelle Hickey said after the match against Baylor. “We need to play to our strengths instead of worrying about losing.”
The Bruins should not have to worry as much when playing against the Waves. The last time UCLA lost to Pepperdine was in 2006, when the then-undefeated teams clashed in Malibu and the home team prevailed 4-3. But the Bruins retaliated when it mattered the most, defeating the Waves later in the season during the NCAA Tournament. Since then, UCLA has beaten Pepperdine each time in the annual meetings.
But unlike the Bruins, the Waves are coming into today’s meeting with a win streak, albeit one that spans a single match. The No. 32 Waves are coming off of the biggest win of their young season, a 4-3 victory over then-No.22 Texas. UCLA will have to look for some consistency and toughness to start a winning streak of its own.
“We have a lot of matches ahead of us, starting with Pepperdine, and we need to be disciplined,” Sampras Webster said. “We need to be able to stay in points longer and feel fit enough to do that.”
