UCLA women’s tennis maintains optimism for postseason despite recent loss to No. 1 USC
Sophomore Courtney Dolehide and the UCLA women’s tennis team will be playing in the Pac-12 Championships starting Thursday in Ojai.
By Susana Vasquez
April 26, 2012 12:48 a.m.
The loss the UCLA women’s tennis team suffered at the hands of its nemesis USC could end up being a blessing in disguise.
This loss could have weakened and degraded any team, but UCLA takes it as a learning experience to improve for the next matches.
“I think that, if anything, it prepares us even more because we know specific things that we need to work on, and I think that we all have that much more drive and motivation to do well coming up so that we can prepare for NCAAs,” sophomore Courtney Dolehide said.
Coach Stella Sampras Webster shares Dolehide’s optimistic outlook.
“(I’m) just reassuring the team that, “˜Hey, this was unfortunate today, but we are going to learn from it; it’s going to make us even better. You guys are still the No. 1 team in the country, and you got to remember this feeling so that we don’t put ourselves in this situation again and learn from it,'” Sampras Webster said.
Before losing the doubles point to USC, UCLA had lost the doubles point only twice: once against Georgia Tech back in February and the other one against Cal earlier this month. UCLA was able to come back against Georgia Tech, but could not recover against Cal.
Now that the regular season is over, winning the doubles point is more crucial than ever for the Bruins.
Junior Pamela Montez acknowledges the importance of winning the doubles point now that every point counts.
“It’s always very important because obviously, it’s a lot easier to win three matches as opposed to four, but regardless of losing a doubles point, we have a chance to win all six matches against any team,” she said.
The Bruins will have their last chance to make changes before the NCAA Championships at the Pac-12 Championships in Ojai.
“Pac-12, I think, the players that are healthy and ready to go are just going to get more competition, and I think that it’s going to be a great draw and another opportunity to get better,” Sampras Webster said.
“There’s really no major adjustments we have to make; there are some that we want to make and just get our players better prepared … get them sharper and overall keep them healthy so that we can be at our best when it comes to regionals,” she added.
All the hard work and determination the women’s team has shown throughout the season is coming down to what happens at the end of the postseason in May, when the NCAA champion will be crowned.
