Bruins bounce back after loss to Georgia

Tuesday, February 23, 1999

Bruins bounce back after loss to Georgia

WTENNIS: No. 8 UCLA bears Bulldog blowout, wins in consolation
play

By Audrey Jing

Daily Bruin Contributor

The UCLA women’s tennis team ran into a wall in the first round
of the USTA/ITA National Indoor Team Tennis Tournament in Madison,
Wis., but bounced back with two wins in the consolation round.

"We didn’t do bad, and we didn’t do great," coach Stella Sampras
said. "But we’re right on track for the rest of the season."

The No. 8 Bruins played a team ranked higher than themselves for
the first time this season, drawing the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs in
the first round. The Bruins were unable to break through the
Bulldogs’ deep lineup and lost their opening match, 2-6.

Garnering wins for the Bruins were No. 11 Cristina Popescu, who
upset Georgia’s 11th ranked Vanessa Castellano 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, in
the second singles position, and veteran Brandi Freudenberg, who
fought out a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over No. 22 Esther Knox in the
No. 4 spot.

No. 1 doubles play saw a meeting of two familiar teams. After
almost pulling out a victory over Georgia’s No. 1 duo of Marissa
Catlin and Castellano at the Rolex National Indoors two weeks
before, the No. 8 team of Annica Cooper and Amanda Basica fell 8-2
against the nation’s top-ranked team.

It wasn’t over for the Bruins, however, as consolation play
ended nicely.

UCLA did a little fighting of its own against the No. 16 Irish
of Notre Dame.

UCLA trailed 2-4 after the completion of five of six singles
matches and No. 1 doubles play.

Cooper, Basica and Freudenberg fell in straight sets in the
second, third and fourth singles positions respectively. Basica and
Cooper dropped the No. 1 doubles match 8-3 to the No. 22 team of
Michelle Dasso and Jennifer Hall.

Popescu and Katia Roubanova kept the Bruins in the match with
wins at the No.1 and No. 5 positions.

Popescu upset 10th ranked Dasso 7-5, 6-1, while Roubanova beat
Kelly Zalinski 7-6, 6-4.

The match shifted directions when UCLA rookie Petya Marinova
came to the rescue, fighting back to take a three-set grinder
against Notre Dame freshman Lindsey Green, 2-6, 7-6, 7-6. Marinova
saved three team match points in her win.

With the Bruins down 3-4, Roubanova and Freudenberg recorded an
8-5 win over the No. 46 team of Becky Varnum and Marisa Velasco at
No. 2 doubles to tie the score at 4-4.

Marinova and Popescu clinched the 5-4 victory for the Bruins
winning 8-4 in the No. 3 slot.

"Petya’s win was probably the key match," Sampras said. "Notre
Dame had three match points on us, but we kept fighting and came
back to win. At one point, it looked like we weren’t going to win.
We weren’t playing our best tennis, but we hung in there. That
shows the character of our team."

It was relatively smooth sailing from there. The Bruins defeated
No. 29 Wisconsin 6-2 in the final round of consolation play.

"Everyone played as well as we needed to win," Sampras said. "I
was pleased to see us go out there and stay tough."

The Bruins took four of six singles matches with wins from
Popescu, Cooper, Roubanova and Marinova.

The Bruin doubles teams won handily to clinch the win. The teams
of Cooper-Basica and Popescu-Marinova both won by scores of
8-2.

The trip outside the Pac-10 was a good experience, as the Bruins
came back home with a better sense of what they need to do to
improve the team.

"We can be one of the top teams in the country if we can stay
healthy and get in the best shape possible," Sampras said. "This
weekend we saw that the top teams are strong because they’re in
great shape."

Although the doubles teams have improved much over last year,
doubles strength is still lacking from the equation.

"We need to work on playing well at the same time," Popescu
said. "We need to work on closing in doubles. Sometimes the whole
match can come down to doubles.

The Bruins have a break from competition until dual match play
resumes this Saturday against the UNLV Rebels.

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