Fitness focus gives women’s tennis new edge for NCAAs

For the UCLA women’s tennis team, this season is in many ways almost identical to the last.

Both this year and last, the team’s up-and-coming freshman won the Pac-12 championship. Both this year and last, the team was seeded in the top 10 heading into the NCAA championships but with a higher national ranking. And just like last year, the team faces the unknown across the net, as it will not be playing any schools that it played previously in the first round of the championships.

This season, though, the team holds a secret weapon that it previously lacked: fitness.

The Bruins hope this will be the key to success in the NCAA tournament and ultimately serve as the distinguishing factor between this season and the last, where they fell to Texas A&M; in the NCAA semifinals.

Increased fitness can make all the difference, both decreasing the time it takes players to recover from one day to the next and helping the players feel more confident as they step onto the court. Last season, the team placed less emphasis on its fitness. This year, though, coaches have stressed the importance of taking days off to rest when necessary, eating healthy and individual fitness training.

“We’ve been more strict about the recovery process, making sure we do our ice baths and eating healthy,” said junior Chanelle Van Nguyen. “I feel like we’ve done a better job this year … and we are more prepared because our fitness has been tougher.”

The team has managed to evade the injury bug as well, partially because of the increased emphasis on fitness. Last year, several players could not play in the Pac-12 and NCAA championships because of injury. This season, however, because the players are working harder to protect their bodies before and after practice, they are free of injury and ready to take on their opponents at full health.

“It’s all about staying on top of things, so we’re all going in for treatment every day for an hour,” said senior Courtney Dolehide. “I have my foot taped every day, and Flexall on my back.”

Last year, the Bruins learned the hard way that maintaining fitness before and after matches and practice can determine the result of an entire season. At the championships, the players became tired and didn’t recover quickly enough for their matches the following day, said coach Stella Sampras Webster.

If the team wins its first two NCAA tournament matches this weekend, it’ll travel to Athens, Ga., for the final rounds. There, it will be extremely important to maintain the team’s fitness, as the extremely high heat and humidity can cause players to tire out more easily and wear down more quickly at the end of matches.

“They’re feeling good about their game,” Sampras Webster said. “It’s important to be in better shape than we were last year.”