No.1 women’s tennis uses winter hiatus to prepare defense of NCAA title

Like most other UCLA students, the players on UCLA’s women’s tennis team were able to go home over the past two weeks to enjoy the holiday season and take a break from classes.

But with the winter and spring seasons quickly approaching, the Bruins wouldn’t have been able to benefit from simply binge watching Netflix or college football bowl games; so instead, they worked on their fitness and fundamentals to stay in top tennis form.

“They were responsible for staying in shape and training on their own,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “We will have them prepared, they’ll be ready for the season, but it was all on them during the winter break.”

The players, who come from all around the country, chose to use their winter break opportunities differently, training in various ways that they thought would best benefit them.

For junior Catherine Harrison, winter break in the past two years meant returning to her hometown of Germantown, Tenn. to play several daily matches against various opponents in the area and participate in rigorous workouts with her personal trainer. Her routine consisted of 7 a.m. matches, more matches in the afternoons and exercises with a personal trainer in the evenings. But due to renovations to the indoor courts at the tennis club at which she plays, Harrison was forced to take a different approach to her winter break preparations this year.

“I did some weights and spin classes, but I rested a lot, which I think will help. The last two breaks I have trained hard with tennis, but the season is so long that I think the rest I got this break will be really beneficial,” Harrison said.

Harrison’s doubles partner, junior Kyle McPhillips, also went home to a cold climate during the roughly two-week hiatus. She was able to work with her father, who is also her longtime tennis coach, on specific tennis strokes on the indoor courts near her home in Willoughby, Ohio.

“Besides indoor tennis, I also did a lot of cardio, bike, swimming, weights, medicine ball stuff, pretty much a little of everything, so it was a good break,” McPhillips said.

Harrison and McPhillips, who won the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships doubles tournament in November and are currently ranked No. 1 nationally, both said that they are happy with the ways they were able to use winter break in preparation for the season.

Meanwhile, freshman Kristin Wiley went back to South Florida and trained for the entirety of the break with her personal coach Harold Solomon at his tennis academy in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But playing matches or working to sharpen her strokes wasn’t her primary objective for the break. She actually directed much of her time toward improving an injury she has been dealing with in her right hamstring.

“I basically trained the whole break to do a lot of physical therapy for my micro-tear. I used the time to strengthen that and get into better shape,” Wiley said.

Now that the team is back on campus and with its next match on Jan. 9, Sampras Webster will continue to employ the same coaching strategies that she did in the fall with consistent morning and afternoon drills and rallying.

In addition, the coaching staff will implement an individual hitting schedule with the players to increase the intensity of individual training. Sampras Webster said that the individual hits will occur before practices, and other than that the practices will be as intense, tough and long as they have been in the past.

With a preseason ranking of No. 1 in the nation and a team featuring four singles players and two doubles teams in the top 100 nationally, the Bruins appear poised to put up a strong defense of last year’s national championship.