Regarding Cathy

  A small town girl at heart, Cathy Hawley
takes competition seriously on UCLA’s tennis team

By Eric Perez
Daily Bruin Contributor

You can always spot a true competitor by the way they thrive in
a tough spot. True competitors seem to always bring out their best
when it’s needed most.

Senior Catherine Hawley, captain of the UCLA women’s team,
is one of those true competitors.

Last year, she squared off against Cal’s Christina Fusano,
and her match was the dual match’s deciding point. Hawley
battled to clinch a two set 7-6, 6-4 victory.

Now what happened next defies all explanation, and Hawley
herself doesn’t quite remember what went on. But not so much
as one moment passed before Hawley crashed ““ face first to
the ground.

“I was excited and relieved, and I just fell down because
I was nervous,” Hawley said. “The match kind of
determined whether or not we would get into the NCAA tournament.
But my teammates still talk about it to this day, and we even have
it on video tape.”

This season on Feb. 23, then No. 11 UCLA squared off against
then No. 7 Arizona State. The dual match was all tied up at 3-3,
with only one match left to decide the winner. Hawley was off on
the far court battling it out with ASU’s Lauren Colallilo.
Hawley was down 0-3 in the third set; the moment was electric. Her
teammates were cheering her on, telling her to dig deep. A win by
Hawley, and the Bruins would catapult into the top ten in the
rankings.

Hawley fired off six straight games to win her match 6-2, 4-6,
6-3. It was more than that; the Bruin win brought them closer to
national recognition, which was something that was lost during last
year’s injury-riddled season.

“It was exciting, it’s why I transferred,”
said Hawley, who came from the University of Richmond in Virginia
three years ago, “because it is exciting to play in the
Pac-10 and know that it’s going to be competitive. You want
to be ready if it comes down to your match, and when it does
it’s rewarding when you do well.”

Her victory was another example of how much of an effect she has
had on the Bruin’s success this year.

“I think Catherine secretly likes being in those
situations,” doubles partner Sarah Gregg said. “I think
she feeds off the pressure, and she likes to be the center of
attention from time to time.”

On the tennis court, it seems all Hawley wants to do is compete.
For her it’s simply a question of bringing out her best and
seeing the positives in the most crucial of situations.

Against USC on Feb. 1, with the dual match already out of hand,
Hawley engaged in a marathon battle with ‘SC’s
Bernadette Bayani, defeating her by coming from behind in the last
two sets to win the match.

Bayani collapsed in pain once the match ended, and Hawley hopped
over the net to see if she was OK. Her effort was so titanic that
even the chair umpire complemented her on a job well done.

Hawley hails from tiny Carmel Valley in Northern California. At
Santa Cantalita High School she compiled a 66-0 record in four
years. Essentially a small-town girl at heart, with a good-natured
sense of humor, Hawley chose to attend Richmond ““ one of the
smallest Division I tennis programs in the country, to stay within
a small school environment.

The school’s lack of diversity was enough to make her
question whether or not she came to the right place, but
Richmond’s lackadaisical tennis program was what most
appalled Hawley. She needed somewhere to compete, somewhere to
thrive, somewhere to improve. Fear of stagnation was enough to make
her file for a transfer.

“It was just a “˜hit and giggle’ kind of
program; no one was really motivated there,” Hawley said.
“The coach always would show up late, and we would never even
so much as stretch before practice, and getting extra time with the
coach was like pulling teeth.

“I wasn’t developing as a player, and there
wasn’t any sense of competition out there for me.”

She came to UCLA with no guarantees of making the team. It was a
roll of the dice.

Her game needed work, but here was a coaching staff that was
willing to work with her and accelerate her game.

“She’s very gritty,” assistant coach Jon
Reeves said. “She’s hard working. She’s not
someone who is going to blow away her opponents. She has to be more
creative and use different parts of her game and be more consistent
and wear her opponents down.”

With her hard work, she earned her way into the lineup. Here at
UCLA, where the school attendance is larger than the population of
town she is from, Hawley has found a home.

“I love it here, there are people here from all kinds of
different backgrounds,” Hawley said. “When I got here I
was overwhelmed.”

But even more than her pleasant surroundings, Hawley relishes
being at a top-flight Division I school and the competition it
brings. And because of her 8-1 season record, and her dependable
match play, the Bruins are No. 8 in the nation and are on a quest
for an NCAA title.