UCLA, Oregon come back to LATC
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 24, 2001 9:00 p.m.
WOMEN’S TENNIS vs. Today 1:30 p.m. LATC
By Hannah Gordon
Daily Bruin Contributor The Ducks are back, and this time they hope
to actually play some tennis. UCLA hosts Oregon today at 1:30 at
the LATC to make up for a Feb. 24 match that was cancelled due to
rain. The No. 32 Bruins are favored to win the match against the
unranked Ducks. However, Head Coach Stella Sampras is still taking
the match very seriously. “We need to have the same focus as
we did against Cal and Stanford even though it is the end of the
season and the players are tired,” she said. While the Ducks
do not boast of any big names, they are known to be grinders who
make few mistakes. However, they also make few big shots. Their
style of play should be an interesting match, as No. 3 junior Petya
Marinova is also known for returning every ball and waiting for her
opponents to make a mistake. The Bruins enter the match with
confidence after upsetting No. 9 Cal over the weekend. Freshmen
Lauren Fisher and Mariko Fritz-Krockow are feeling especially
prepared after also winning their singles matches against No. 1
Stanford on Saturday. “With that win over Keiko I am
confident,” Fritz-Krockow said of her defeat of
Stanford’s Keiko Tokuda, ranked No. 41 nationally. That
excitement is tempered by a bit of sentimentality over the end of
the regular season, however. “I’m sad that it is the
last match because our team has been through a lot and we are so
close,” Fisher said. With the season almost over, the match
is important for NCAA seedings, which will be announced in the next
few weeks. “It’s a match we need to win” because
of the seedings, Sampras said. Rankings determine where the Bruins
will be placed in regionals and which of the top 64 teams will be
grouped together when they are divided into 16 regions. The winner
of each regional progresses to the Sweet Sixteen. Until then, the
Bruins will compete in Pac-10 Championships this weekend, where
sophomore Sara Walker hopes to defend her Pac-10 singles title. In
addition to Walker, junior Catherine Hawley, Marinova, and possibly
Fisher will compete in the 32-draw singles tournament. Marinova and
Walker, as well as Fisher and Fritz-Krockow, will also compete in
doubles.
