UCLA women’s tennis hopes to qualify for championship

BY JASON DRANTCH
Bruin Sports reporter
[email protected]

At the USTA/ITA National Team Indoors Championship last season, UCLA women’s tennis was on the verge of capturing the title for the second straight year. However, then-senior Pamela Montez fell in the third set tiebreaker, resulting in a 4-3 loss to North Carolina.

With the National Indoors qualifying tournament starting Friday, this ITA kick-off weekend marks the beginning of the team’s opportunity to get back on the path to reclaim the title.

To get to Virginia for the National Indoors, the Bruins must first defeat the San Diego Toreros, whom UCLA defeated 4-0 in the opening round of last year’s tournament.

“I think we just need to come prepared and expect San Diego to come out playing very aggressively and free,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “We just need to be ready, because I think we understand that they have nothing to lose and they’re going to be going after it.”

If the Bruins advance to the final round of the tournament, they will have a matchup on Saturday against the winner of Friday’s match between Texas Christian University and UC Irvine. UCLA defeated UC Irvine 5-2 in their nonconference matchup last year, but it did not play TCU.

UCLA is coming off a 7-0 victory over UC Santa Barbara in its season opener, which the team used as an opportunity to get adjusted to the new playing format.

According to junior Chanelle Van Nguyen, the team knows what to expect from the new format now, even though they are still adapting to having no time to warm up and playing shorter games.

Freshman Jennifer Brady described the change as “a work in progress.”

What is also a work in progress is the health of a couple of Bruin players.

Junior Robin Anderson, the top-ranked singles player in the nation, forfeited the singles title at the Freeman Memorial Championships in Las Vegas last weekend when she could not compete due to illness. She also missed Tuesday’s season opener, but Sampras Webster said she expects Anderson to be healthy enough to play this weekend.

Also on the mend is junior Kaitlin Ray, who is questionable to play due to an undisclosed injury.

“We’re not quite sure of my status right now,” Ray said. “I want to peak for Indoors. I want to be healthy for that, so I’m going to take care of my body and we’ll see.”

In order for Ray to be able to play in the National Indoors, the team has to get there first. Her coach says that her teammates will need to work hard and expect tough matches out of their opponents for that to happen.

“Obviously we need to win and that’s why we take this weekend very seriously,” Sampras Webster said. “Hopefully, we will get it done this weekend, so that we have that opportunity to do well in Virginia like we’ve done.”

The pain of last year’s narrow defeat in the National Indoors title match still lingers in the players’ minds and will be a guiding memory for the Bruins when they take the court this weekend.

“Our ultimate goal is to win a National Indoors (title) and knowing that we lost in the finals, it’s more motivating for us coming into it this year,” Van Nguyen said. “I think we have an even better, stronger team and I think we have high chances to do so.”