Doubles, singles squads dominate UCI, prepare for Friday’s ‘SC match

  NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Despite battling a hamstring
injury, Petya Marinova strikes the ball in her
match against UCI as the UCLA women’s tennis team won 6-1.

By Brian Kiley
Daily Bruin Contributor

Early in her doubles match against UC Irvine Wednesday, UCLA
sophomore Mariko Fritz-Krockow was hit in the face with a volley
from UCI’s Kristina Boss.

By the end of the day Fritz-Krockow and company made sure the
Anteaters felt her pain and then some, upending UCI 6-1.

“I was really ticked at her,” Fritz-Krockow said
jokingly of Boss, whom she went on to defeat 6-0, 6-3 in singles,
“which really helped since she was my opponent for
singles.”

In their final tune-up before Friday’s showdown with USC,
the No. 16 Bruins took control early. Megan Bradley and Sarah Gregg
jumped out to a 5-0 lead in their doubles match, and then cruised
to an 8-4 win.

“We started off really well,” Bradley said.
“Then we started focusing a little bit more on what our
teammates were doing, but then we started playing a little better
and pulled it out.”

The doubles teams of Sarah Walker/Petya Marinova and Christine
Hawley/Fritz-Krockow each notched 8-3 victories to secure the
doubles point for the Bruins.

In the singles matches, All-American Sara Walker made quick work
of UCI’s Amy Tranckino, winning 6-0 6-0.

“I played really well,” Walker said. “I
stepped up and dictated the whole match.”

In the No. 1 singles match, Bradley took on nationally ranked
UCI senior Jonni Seymour. Bradley kept the talented southpaw at bay
with precision groundstrokes and walked off the court with a 6-2,
6-3 win.

“(Seymour) is pretty tough because she’s a lefty and
she’s really scrappy,” Bradley said. “I thought
overall I played pretty well.”

In other matches Gregg struggled early but then rolled to a 7-6,
6-1 win over Anna Bentzer and Hawley blanked Christie Posner 6-0,
6-0.

UCLA’s only loss came when Petya Marinova retired after
splitting sets 1-6, 6-4. Marinova is battling a nagging hamstring
injury, and UCLA head coach Stella Sampras decided to have Marinova
retire and rest since the match was in hand.

“I just wanted her to rest a little bit and get ready for
‘SC,” Sampras said. “She’s going to be
fine, she’ll be 100 percent.”

Lauren Fisher, who sat out with tendonitis in her elbow, is also
expected to be ready for Friday’s match.

Sampras was pleased with Wednesday’s performance, but
emphasized the importance of remembering the team’s ultimate
goal ““ an NCAA title.

“We need to treat each team and go into each match with
the idea of it preparing us for May,” Sampras said.
“With a team like (UCI), it’s important that our team
stays focused and discipline really takes care of
matches.”