Squad’s national championship hopes dashed by defeat

By Eric Perez
DAILY BRUIN REPORTER
[email protected]

The opportunity to take home NCAA championship hardware awaited
four members of the UCLA women’s tennis team, yet that
opportunity turned into two singles tournament losses and a first
round doubles tournament upset.

The Bruins sustained quite a blow yesterday in the NCAA singles
tournament as both freshman Megan Bradley and junior Sara Walker
were eliminated in the round of 16.

Bradley, ranked No. 3 in the nation, squared off against No. 2
Wake Forest’s Bea Bielik and was soundly defeated 6-1,
6-0.

“Against a player like Bea Bielik, if you don’t have
a big serve or big weapon going for you, it’s very hard to
beat her.” said UCLA head coach Stella Sampras.

After winning two singles matches in three sets yesterday,
Walker was beaten by USC’s Jewel Peterson 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.

Walker then went on to team with senior Petya Marinova in the
first round of the NCAA doubles tournament. Ranked No. 4,
Walker/Marinova lost to Tennessee’s unranked pair of Vilmarie
Castellvi and Agnes Wiski 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-2.

Walker had a particularly trying time in the NCAAs, having
played two singles matches yesterday then a singles and doubles
match today, a grand total of twelve sets of tennis in two
days.

“I was pretty tired and my shoulder was really tired from
serving so many matches, and my body was really worn down,”
Walker said. “I went out there with all could but I
wasn’t at my usual best.”

Bradley and sophomore Lauren Fisher play on after defeating
LSU’s tandem of Bruna Colosio and Rocio Tantilli 6-3, 7-5.
They then moved on to defeat Arizona State’s Adria Engel and
Dora Krusrulovic 6-3, 7-5.

“We’re excited for this, we’ve been waiting
for this all year,” Fisher said.