From one team to another
By Ajaybir Behniwal
May 20, 2008 10:23 p.m.
A day after being eliminated from the NCAA semifinal, the UCLA men’s tennis team mustered up the energy to head out to the Michael D. Case Tennis Center and cheer on their fellow Bruins on the women’s team in the finals.
Ever since the implementation of the combined championships at one site in 2006 at Palo Alto, the two teams have been some of each other’s biggest fans.
“The guys on the men’s tennis team were the best cheerers out there,” senior Riza Zalameda said. “Their support was phenomenal and I’m sure we wouldn’t have made it through the matches without them.”
No other school has ever had both the men’s and women’s teams reach the semifinals since the combined format, but UCLA utilized the accomplishment to its advantage.
Unless the teams were playing later in the day or early after a night match, they made the trip from their hotel to the tennis courts at the University of Tulsa to support one another.
“I think we had more support here (in Tulsa) than we do at UCLA,” senior Tracy Lin said. “It makes it a lot easier for us to have people cheering for us.”
The men’s team helped lead eight-claps and was even organized enough to spread out evenly to cheer on each of their schoolmates.
It wasn’t just the members of the men’s team who helped root the Bruins to victory, though, as several family members and friends made the trip in the middle of the work week to witness UCLA capture its first ever women’s tennis national championship.
And the most vocal supporter at Bruin tennis matches is Steve Webster, the husband of UCLA head coach Stella Sampras Webster, who made the trip with their twin daughters.
“He’s our biggest fan and he’s sacrificed so much for me so it’s great to see us win it and I get to enjoy it with him and my girls,” Sampras Webster said after the match. “It’s awesome and I know that he’s extremely happy for us.”
GROUNDSTROKES: Andrea Remynse improved her record in the postseason to 6-0 and earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team at the No. 4 singles position. Her win over Claire Ilcinkas on Tuesday afternoon was the first defeat handed to Ilcinkas in the NCAA Championships. UCLA finished the season, winning 15 of its last 16 matches.
