W. tennis: Team to face new level of competition
By David Garcia
Feb. 2, 2005 9:00 p.m.
After dabbling around with lesser opponents for two weeks, the
UCLA women’s tennis team will finally be able to put their
skills to the test this weekend.
The No. 4 Bruins will open up competition at the USTA/ITA
Women’s National Team Indoor Championships in Madison, Wis.,
today against Miami in a tournament that features seven of the
top-ten teams in the nation.
“We will find out a lot this week,” coach Stella
Sampras Webster said. “We’re ready for some big matches
and I think we should do well. We’ve been preparing for this
level of competition for a while and we’re excited to have
our full lineup out there.”
In the Bruins’ last match against Pepperdine, the team was
without its top singles player, Daniela Bercek. However, the
sophomore has since recovered from a bout with the flu and will be
integral if UCLA wants to advance deep into this elite
tournament.
“This is definitely the biggest match for us so far team
wise,” freshman Elizabeth Lumpkin said. “Every team
here is in the top 16. Hopefully, we can make it to the last
day.”
The 12th-ranked Hurricanes are a team the Bruins are quite
familiar with, having defeated them in last year’s NCAA
quarterfinals and during the regular season, both by 4-3
margins.
They will also be reacquainted with Megan Bradley, a former
Bruin who transferred after the 2002 season and is now ranked
second in the nation.
However, the bulk of this year’s team wasn’t a part
of last year’s run to the NCAA finals and even less were a
part of Bradley’s lone season in a Bruin uniform.
Understanding that this weekend is the first real
intercollegiate challenge for her youthful team, Sampras Webster
has stressed the importance of strong doubles play in order to set
the tone early in this week’s matches.
“Winning the doubles point is very important,”
Sampras Webster said. “Whoever wins the doubles point has a
lot of momentum going into the singles matches. I think that
winning doubles will be important for us since we will probably be
a little nervous, especially our young players.”
Should the Bruins advance to the second round, they will likely
face sixth-seeded Duke, which also features a former Bruin. Jackie
Carleton, who transferred to Duke after having her scholarship
revoked at the end of last season, is currently ranked 56th and
playing No. 1 singles for the Blue Devils.
But despite the potential for a reunion on the courts, Sampras
Webster insists the only thing her team is focused on is
winning.
“When we’re on the court, it’s war,”
Sampras Webster said. “We don’t care who we’re
playing, we just want to win the tournament. We’re not
putting any special importance on teams with former Bruins on
them.”
