No. 6 UCLA women’s tennis aims to extend its win streak to six on the road against the No. 28 Pepperdine Waves
Senior Noelle Hickey and the Bruins face Pepperdine today in a match that was supposed to be played on Feb. 25 but was postponed because of rain.
By Daniel Khayat
April 13, 2011 3:26 a.m.
Rain played a prominent role in the UCLA women’s tennis team’s contest against Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz., on Saturday, delaying the match for three hours.
But that doesn’t hold a candle to the six weeks that have passed since Feb. 25, the originally scheduled date for the Bruins’ match with the Pepperdine Waves.
A storm postponed the original encounter, slated to be the Bruins’ first match after their disappointing outing at the National Team Indoors. Instead, the match was rescheduled for today, and senior Noelle Hickey is happy with the new date.
“I think we’re playing so much better now (than we were in February),” Hickey said. “(Pepperdine) is a great team and we’ll need to be really ready, and I think we’re more ready now than we were then.”
The No. 6 Bruins (16-5, 6-1 Pac-10) are winners of five straight, including their last four on the road, and will need to continue their strong away form to close out the season successfully. After traveling to Malibu to face the Waves (16-6) today, the Bruins will close out their season with a rivalry match at No. 14 USC (14-6, 4-3) Friday.
“Our players are ready,” coach Stella Sampras Webster said. “It’s just a matter of maintaining what we have. Our team is pretty fit, and I think they’ll respond well to playing (today) and … be ready on Friday.”
Senior Maya Johansson admits that while Pepperdine’s players are a force to be reckoned with themselves, they might not be the only detriment to the Bruins’ collective focus.
“Their fans are pretty annoying,” Johansson said with a laugh. “Playing Pepperdine is always tricky, they have a lot of energy.”
Even though this match serves as a break amidst a long slate of Pac-10 conference matches, Sampras Webster is quick to note its importance. The Waves are on a four-match winning streak of their own, and are just shy of cracking the top 25 with a No. 28 national ranking.
“We need to get our players prepared to continue to play strong these last two matches,” Sampras Webster said. “We’ve had a very good run, but this is an important match. To beat them would improve our seeding in the (NCAA) Tournament, so it’s a good opportunity for us.”
