Upcoming games give women’s tennis chance at Pac-10 co-championship
The Bruins look on from the sidelines during Friday’s 6-1 win over USC. No. 7 UCLA may have a chance to be conference co-champions with Stanford in Ojai today.
By Rebecca Lee
April 20, 2010 9:33 p.m.
The weekend of April 3 was a particularly muddled one for four California schools.
When the Bruins and crosstown rival USC visited the Bay Area to face Cal and Stanford that weekend, several things didn’t go according to plan.
The Bay Area rain forced cancellation of UCLA’s matchup against then-No. 11 Cal, a game that had already been postponed two days during the same weekend.
USC and Stanford knew that rain was imminent so the two teams agreed to play singles before doubles, a deviation from the normal dual match routine, in hopes of deciding the match result. The Women of Troy and the Cardinal battled to a 3-3 stalemate before rain forced suspension of the match.
As the Pac-10 teams gather in Ojai to prepare for the Pac-10 Championships this weekend, No. 18 USC will face No. 9 Stanford at 11 a.m. today in a rematch of their April 2 match.
They will only compete in doubles play ““ whoever takes two out of three doubles matches will capture the doubles point, and therefore the match victory.
Here’s where UCLA comes into play.
Coincidentally, April 3 marked the No. 7 Bruins’ first and only conference loss this season, a 5-2 stumble at the hands of No. 10 Stanford, who was able to extend its home winning streak to 159 matches in a row.
The Cardinal has not lost a home match since February 27, 1999.
Currently Stanford sits atop the conference standings with a record of 7-0, with UCLA in second place at 6-1 with the loss. Cal and USC are tied in third place at 5-2.
Should USC beat Stanford in Ojai today, dropping Stanford to 7-1, the Bruins will play Cal in a dual match and have a chance to be Pac-10 co-champions with Stanford with a UCLA win.
A Stanford win against the Women of Troy or a UCLA loss in the Cal rematch will cement the Bruins in second place and surrender the conference title to the Cardinal outright.
“We have to wait for the outcome. … We would love to have another shot at Cal and have a chance to play them,” coach Stella Sampras Webster said. “So we’re hoping that ‘SC does beat Stanford and we get to play Cal, and that’s what we’re preparing for … it’s out of our control.”
