Women’s tennis faces Southern Jaguars in first round play-off

By Brian Kiley
Daily Bruin Contributor
[email protected]

Now things get serious.

After a grueling regular season it’s do or die for the
Bruins from here on out. Today at 1 p.m. at the Los Angeles Tennis
Center No. 7 seed UCLA will face the unseeded Southern Jaguars in
the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The Bruins have not played a dual match in over two weeks, but
head coach Stella Sampras says that there will be no signs of rust
when the team takes the court today.

“We’re having them play a lot (in practice) … so
that they are sharp and ready to go (today),” Sampras
said.

UCLA finished the regular season with a record of 16-4, a huge
improvement from last year’s injury-plagued 9-18
campaign.

UCLA’s regular season success gives them a tremendous
amount of confidence heading into the tournament, especially since
last year’s regular season difficulty didn’t prevent
them from reaching the Sweet 16.

“Last year we didn’t have a good season and we
managed to do well in the NCAAs,” senior Petya Marinova said.
“So hopefully this year by having a stronger team and
actually doing well during the year we can do even better in
NCAAs.”

It is likely that UCLA will advance through to a potential third
round match-up with No. 10 seed USC without significant difficulty,
but the team isn’t taking anything for granted.

“We just have to look at the match (in front of us),
because any team could come out with a victory,” freshman
Megan Bradley said. “To look ahead and take teams lightly
would not work to our benefit.”

Despite the lack of play, the week preceding today’s start
of the tournament has been newsworthy. On Tuesday Bradley and Sara
Walker were both named to the All-Pac-10 first team, and Bradley
was also given conference Freshman of the Year honors.

“It’s definitely very cool being a freshman and
being named to that team,” Bradley said. “Especially
with my teammate Sara Walker and being able to follow the path that
she has laid out.”

The return of NCAA Regional action to the LATC will begin today
at 10 a.m. with a match between Loyola Marymount and
Washington.

The winner of that match will face UCLA or Southern Saturday for
the right to advance to the round of 16 which will be played at
Stanford.