Women’s tennis advances to NCAA quarterfinals after snapping Rice’s Cinderella-story streak

Having awoken in the eastern time zone four times this week, UCLA women’s tennis may have had as much ease clicking off their alarms Thursday morning as they did sounding the bell on Cinderella. A 4-0 victory over an upstart Rice University team that reached the Sweet 16 through two straight upset wins proved that the Bruins have little regard for fairy tales, with each UCLA player being up at least a set by the time midnight struck on the Owls.

Led by its four veterans, UCLA played with a frenzied pace that had a reporter informing McCall Jones that the senior looked to be in a race to finish.

Jones enjoyed the ability to pick up a quick win, something not easily earned on the No. 1 seeded team in the tournament.

“My teammates are all so good, I (normally) don’t get to finish because they win so quickly,” said Jones, who was the first singles player to win during a team match that took just more than two hours to complete.

Earlier in the morning, Jones teamed with fellow senior Carling Seguso to capture an 8-2 doubles victory that marked the first of the day for the Bruins. Seguso went on to dominate in singles like Jones, and the lone pair of seniors surrendered only five singles games between themselves.

“They know what this means. They really stepped up today in doubles and got us off to a great start in singles. It was great to have them to lead us. … It really set the tone for the match,” coach Stella Sampras Webster said.

Sophomore Courtney Dolehide and junior Pamela Montez easily wrapped the doubles point through an 8-3 win, while Robin Anderson was the lone newcomer to register a point, winning 6-0, 6-1 to vault UCLA into the Elite Eight.

The day was all about the veterans from both the coaches’ and players’ perspectives. The Bruins’ win came at the expense of Rice coach Elizabeth Schmidt, a UCLA alumna who starred as a player under Sampras Webster more than a decade ago.

“She’s just such a classy coach, classy person, and I hate to play against someone who (I) like and want to see do well. I have so much respect for her and what she’s done with the program,” Sampras Webster said.

Despite the Bruins’ dominant win, the Owls were not alone in not having a ball, as Jones found little reason to celebrate.

“It wasn’t like last year when we won our first round, and we were all hugging and we were all so excited. This year, we expected (to win). We were happy, but more focused, and had an end goal in mind instead of just (thinking) match to match,” Jones said.

Saturday’s coming clash against Cal lacks the magical feel of Rice’s story, but this season’s third installment in the sibling rivalry figures to be as enchanting of a match as any.

The two top-10 teams split their meetings this year, with each winning 4-3 at home.

Thoughts about UCLA’s April defeat at the hands of Cal vary.

While Anderson uses “devastating” to describe the feeling of her first team loss, Jones believes the experience could be instrumental in ensuring UCLA doesn’t lose in the NCAA tournament.

Sampras Webster recognizes that while UCLA is the little sister in a rematch of epic proportions, preparation will determine if the Bruins show up their larger siblings.

“We know them, they know us, and there’s certain gameplans that we need to be able to execute against them,” Sampras Webster said.

“Execution is important on both sides; whichever team executes will come out ahead. They’re a very tall (team). “¦ You look at them, and you’re impressed. But we can’t go in there getting intimidated by that, and we won’t because we know what to expose and their certain weaknesses.”