Bruin win streak ends in heartbreaker to USC

Wednesday, February 17, 1999

Bruin win streak ends in heartbreaker to USC

W>TENNIS: After four losses in singles play,
UCLA doubles fall in close defeat by Trojans

By Audrey Jing

Daily Bruin Contributor

Sometimes things don’t always go as planned.

The No. 8 UCLA women’s tennis team travelled across town to
Marks Tennis Stadium last Saturday with five straight wins on its
shoulders and hopes of continuing a three-year winning streak over
the No. 13 Trojans.

When they got there, they met a feisty, much-improved USC squad
that made it a point to hand the Bruins their first loss of the
season.

"We were pretty confident going into the match," junior Annica
Cooper said. "(USC) came up with some big matches and played really
well."

"They played better than we expected. They just tried really
hard and never gave up."

In a contest full of tight matches, the 6-3 score doesn’t tell
half the story. UCLA started the match on the upbeat, jumping out
to a 2-0 lead after No. 2 Cooper’s quick 6-2, 6-1 disposal of USC’s
Kara Warkentin and No. 1 Cristina Popescu’s 6-4, 7-5 win over Ditta
Huber.

With UCLA’s Amanda Basica and Brandi Freudenberg playing third
sets in the No. 3 and No. 4 positions, and No. 5 Katia Roubanova
and No. 6 Petya Marinova each trailing, the tone of the match was
about to change.

The Trojans took charge in positions three through six, sweeping
all Bruins to take a 4-2 lead at the end of singles play.

Basica fell to Jacqui Boyd 6-3, 1-6, 2-6 while Freudenberg
suffered on the short end of a valiant 1-6, 4-6, 6-7, effort
against Veronika Safarova. Roubanova and Marinova lost in straight
sets with scores of 3-6, 3-6 and 2-6, 0-6.

"We had a lot of close matches that went to a third set – things
really could have gone either way," Popescu said. "After they won
their fourth singles match, the whole face of the match changed a
little. They had a lot of confidence going into doubles."

With four matches down, the Trojans needed only one doubles win
to claim the match.

Huber and Warkentin fought off a comeback by Cooper and Basica,
pulling out an 8-6 win to seal up the victory. Freudenberg and
Roubanova also fell in a close 8-6 to Safarova and Karolina
Bakalarova while Popescu and Marinova garnered one more point for
the Bruins in an 8-7 win.

"We had chances in a couple of the matches to turn things
around, but didn’t execute," coach Stella Sampras said. "They
played well. They’re a strong team, a lot stronger than last year,
so we have to be ready for them when we play them at home."

The loss was a first for a Bruin team that dominated its last
five opponents with a strong singles charge. For the first time all
season, a match was decided in doubles play. The Bruins will use
this experience to refocus for upcoming matches.

"We definitely need to work on gear doubles – we shouldn’t be
losing two out of the three (matches)," Sampras said. "In doubles
we only play an eight game pro-set, so we need to be on and ready
to go."

The Bruins have another crack at their cross town rivals on home
territory when the Trojans come to the L.A. Tennis Center on March
3.

"The team has bounced back," Sampras said. "We realized that
there are some tough teams out there and no one is going to give us
anything. We have to get out there and earn it."

Next up for the Bruins is the USTA National Team Indoors in
Madison, Wisc. Play begins Thursday for the elite 16-team
field.

AARON MICHAEL TOUT

Senior Brandi Freudenberg competes in a match against USD this
past January.