Squad relies on endurance, will power to defeat Trojans

UCLA 5 USC 2

By Eric Perez
Daily Bruin Contributor

Senior team captain Catherine Hawley was still playing some five
hours after the No. 15 UCLA women’s dual match against USC
started.

Hawley was given a late start to begin with as there were only
five courts at the Marks Tennis Stadium and six singles matches
were scheduled. After three sets and an insanely long third set
tie-break, this match had somehow evolved into an incredible test
of wills.

Hawley finally defeated USC’s Bernadette Bayani who
collapsed writhing in pain once the match was over 4-6, 7-6, 7-6.
Hawley’s victory notched the Bruins fifth point of 5-2 in
UCLA’s upset over No. 7 USC. Hawley’s victory was
emblematic of the whole team’s victory ““ the Bruins
(4-0) seemed to simply want it more.

USC (2-1) was well aware how big of a match this was, giving out
30 free pizzas, free soda, and bringing out the Trojan band,
turning Marks Stadium into a mini world of Trojan Bizarro. Fifteen
minutes before match time, the band struck up those ever so awful
notes of their fight song “Conquest,” which, of course,
sent the Trojan faithful into a strange delirium.

Consider this incoherent utterance by a Trojan fan: “This
song makes anything exciting, I could be playing
ping-pong!”

Who knows, maybe if it was ping-pong instead of tennis, USC
might have stood a chance.

The Bruins were unfazed by the band’s presence and a
hostile home crowd.

“The band actually got me pumped up,” said freshman
Megan Bradley, who made quick work of Jewel Peterson 6-2, 6-4 in
No. 1 singles. “And sometimes the fans were pretty rude and
annoying but it was more fuel to shut them up.”

USC did everything they could to establish home court advantage
and it just did not help. The Women of Troy lost the crucial
doubles point and could not handle the UCLA top guns of Bradley and
Sara Walker, who put away Luana Magnani 6-4, 6-3.

Senior team captain Petya Marinova gave the Bruins the clinching
point, fighting from behind in both sets before defeating Anita
Loyola 6-4, 7-6.

“I got hurt in the second set being down 5-3, and I knew
that I had to finish in two sets otherwise I wouldn’t be able
to keep going,” Marinova said.

As Marinova forced a second set tie-break, Bradley and Walker,
already done with their singles matches, along with sophomore
Mariko Fritz-Krockow and freshman Anya Loncaric, all rushed to the
front bleachers to cheer her on.

“It helped so much,” Marinova said about her
teammates’ support. “I was so into it and I knew I was
going to win when they were all there and cheering.”