Bruins fall to Women of Troy in close matchup

  MICHAEL MANTEL Senior Petya Marinova
stretches out for the ball in a doubles match with partner Sara
Walker against USC yesterday afternoon. USC 4 UCLA
3

By Eric Perez
Daily Bruin Contributor

The No. 8 UCLA women’s tennis team squared off against No.
15 USC on Thursday for the second time this season. Recent history,
however, did not repeat itself.

This time, the Bruins fell to the Women of Troy 4-3.

Gone was the Bruin underdog status. Gone was the Trojan band.
Gone was the free food. Gone was the smog-suffocated heat of
southcentral Los Angeles.

Also gone was the memory of the quick 5-2 Bruin victory of last
month.

In its place, were the favored Bruins in a near-empty L.A.
Tennis Center at the start of the match. No band. No food. Instead
of hot weather, there was a chilling coastal wind swirling
throughout the stadium.

In the place of a quickly determined contest was a battle fought
on many different fronts.

The Bruins jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the doubles point. Even
with this victory, you could sense that the match was going to be
close.

UCLA’s top doubles squad of Petya Marinova and Sara Walker
lost 8-2. Walker sustained an injury to her groin and continuously
received treatment for it throughout her singles match.

UCLA sophomore Lauren Fisher was beaten 6-3, 6-1 by Tiffany
Brymer. Bruin freshman Megan Bradley defeated Jewell Peterson in
two sets 6-2, 6-3. Marinova lost in two sets to Maureen Diaz 4-6,
1-6.

With the match tied at two apiece, UCLA senior Catherine Hawley
came back from a 4-0 third-set deficit to win 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.
Minutes later, Walker suffered a crucial upset to Luana Magnani in
three sets 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.

With the dual match all tied up, the task of defeating ‘SC
was left on the tiny shoulders of freshman Sarah Gregg.

It is every freshman’s worst nightmare.

Gregg fought back from a 4-1 third-set deficit to force a tie
break.

The tie break saw three lead changes in which Gregg at one point
had a 8-7 lead with a match point, but Gregg lost three straight
points to Anita Loyola to lose 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (10-8).

The Bruins watched as Loyola was mobbed by her teammates at the
end of the match.

“Sarah Gregg played really well and she kept her
cool,” Loyola said. “She definitely proved that she can
compete. She’s a great competitor, and this experience will
be good for her in the long run.”

Thus ending another chapter in the UCLA/USC rivalry.

“We’ll probably continue to have matches like
this,” UCLA head coach Stella Sampras said. “Today just
didn’t go our way. That’s college tennis for
you.”