Women’s tennis geared up for tough tests against Cal, Stanford
Junior Chanelle Van Nguyen said No. 3 UCLA will get a chance to see how it matches up against top-ranked opponents when the team heads to the Bay Area this weekend to face No. 4 Stanford and No. 12 Cal. (Katie Meyers/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Erik Kaye
April 4, 2014 1:24 a.m.
On a windy afternoon in Westwood, the typically
rhythmic chime of tennis grunts and racket smashes were nowhere to be heard.
Instead, the only audible disturbance was the sound of the UCLA women’s tennis team as the players filed one by one out of their locker room under Straus Stadium and headed toward the team bus waiting for them on the corner of Charles E. Young Drive.
Like clockwork, each player approached the bus lugging a suitcase behind her sharing a look of serious, competitive focus draped across her face.
Awaiting the team this weekend is a road trip to Northern California and back-to-back matches against No. 4 Stanford (13-0, 5-0 Pac-12) and No. 12 California (12-4, 5-0). These matches, however, won’t be reminiscent of any early season tune-up, nor would it lack meaningless implications.
With a shot at a national championship in the NCAA women’s tennis tournament only a month away and the regular-season matches slowly dwindling, each member of the Bruins’ squad understands the importance of facing top-ranked teams in unfamiliar environments.
“Right now we’re just focusing on what’s going to get us to May and deep in the NCAA tournament because our obvious goal is to bring home a national championship,” said junior Kaitlin Ray.
Slated first for the team is a Friday afternoon matchup that pits the No. 3 Bruins against the defending national champion Stanford Cardinal in their only scheduled meeting of the year.
With Stanford’s top six players all boasting a singles ranking inside the top 40, the UCLA squad will have its hands full with arguably its toughest overall league matchup this season.
“We always try to focus on our game, but this trip is different,” said junior Chanelle Van Nguyen. “These teams are really good, and because we haven’t played Stanford this year, we can see how we match up against such a good team.”
Facing a quick turnaround, the Bruins will focus their attention on a highly ranked California team less than 24 hours after taking on the Cardinal.
In this, their second meeting of the season, the Golden Bears look to avenge a narrow 4-3 defeat handed to them by the Bruins in late February.
With the rematch taking place in Berkeley and Cal inheriting a home court advantage, the Bruins must rely on strong mental focus to drown out a potentially hostile Cal crowd.
“We just need to focus on what we’ve been working on the entire quarter and stay mentally tough throughout the whole match because they’re definitely going to challenge us,” said sophomore Kyle McPhillips.
Entering this weekend’s matches without having given up a single point in its past five matches, a surging UCLA squad hopes to take away as much as it can, regardless of the scoreboard’s final result.
“It’s not so much about the result, but about the process,” Ray said. “As long as we execute and do the things we’ve been working on in practice, then it’s going to be a success, but they’re tough and this is just another opportunity to get better.”
UCLA v. Stanford: Three Things To Watch Out For
1. Robin Anderson v. Kristie Ahn: In a likely battle between each team’s top player, this singles match would pit two of the nation’s top-five collegiate players against each other for the very first time in competition.Both No. 3 Anderson of UCLA and No. 5 Ahn for Stanford also share the same home state of New Jersey and now look to best each other in California.
2. Catherine Harrison: The Bruins’ hottest player as of late is sophomore Catherine Harrison, who currently owns a 17-match winning streak, including a perfect undefeated record in dual matches this season. Her last loss in a singles match dates back to the middle of January at the Freeman Memorial Championships, and she now looks to continue her dominate play against a tough Stanford opponent.
3. Streaking Bruins: Entering the match against Stanford, UCLA looks to continue its streak of consistently overpowering opponents. The team currently holds a nine-match winning streak, with the last five of those coming as shutout wins. The Bruins will have their hands full trying to stretch the streak against the No. 4 Cardinal.
