Women’s tennis
Chloe Agas, Daily Bruin staff

Familiar foes make the best guides when stepping into the unknown.

This weekend will serve as UCLA women’s tennis’ (5-4) Big Ten opener, and it’ll hit the road to face a pair of former-Pac-12 rivals in Oregon (7-4, 0-2) Friday and No. 19 Washington (9-1, 2-0) Sunday in Eugene, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, respectively. The Bruins are 28-1 all-time against the Ducks and 33-5 against the Huskies.

Friday’s battle against Oregon is the first between the two since April, when UCLA concocted a 5-0 victory in its last regular-season match at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. Oregon coach Courtney Nagle’s squad features Tilde Jagare, who is undefeated in 11 singles matches this season.

The Huskies boast a ranked doubles pairing in No. 85 Reece Carter and Alexia Jacobs, who defeated then-No.1 doubles duo Ange Oby Kajuru and Anastasiya Komar of Oklahoma State at the ITA All-American Championships in September before advancing to the quarterfinals.

When UCLA swept Washington during ITA Kickoff Weekend Jan. 25, then-No. 6 seniors Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle led Carter and Jacobs 5-3 before the match was left unfinished.

After UCLA lost 3-4 to USC Friday – its first loss to the crosstown rival since 2022 – Hance said the defeat would only fuel the team for what lies ahead.

“This is a great bonding experience,” Hance said. “Going into these upcoming matches, we don’t want to be like this again. All we’re going to do is use it as motivation.”

Coach Stella Sampras Webster added that the stakes will only get higher.

“We need to learn from it,” Sampras Webster said. “Because at this point these players, every match is important. Every point is important.”

The Bruins are set to hit first serve at 12:30 p.m. Friday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Men’s tennis
Caleb Kim, Daily Bruin contributor

The Bruins appear to be surging after losing four straight and six of their last eight.

Following consecutive 7-0 sweeps in its Big Ten opening weekend, UCLA men’s tennis (4-6, 2-0 Big Ten) will head across town to face No. 22 USC (8-4, 2-0) at David X. Mark Tennis Stadium on Friday. After losing 4-3 to the Trojans in Westwood on Feb. 22, the Bruins have a chance to return the favor.

“The opponents that we lost to, the teams are all top teams, top-20 teams. I think we were right there with them,” said senior Giacomo Revelli. “We were really motivated by those losses to go out and prove ourselves.”

No. 37 Rudy Quan shared a similar message – saying that the Bruins weren’t getting blown out in their losses, just struggling to finish, and were even unlucky at times. The freshman added that a more cohesive bond and improved dynamic across the team has helped in their recent success.

“Just focusing on what I can do out there and what I can control,” Quan said. “As long as we’re controlling what we can control out there and doing the best we can – we’re going to do great things.”

Coach Billy Martin has been forced to adjust his lineup with the absence of No. 14 sophomore and All-American Spencer Johnson, who hasn’t played since Feb. 2 with an undisclosed injury.

However, the coach added that Johnson’s condition hasn’t kept him from contributing to the team’s success.

“Our biggest concern was losing Spencer, who’s by far one of our top two doubles players. Trying to get some new teams – figuring that out,” Martin said. “We’ve had some good leadership. Even though Spencer is not playing, he’s right here with as much of a heart and soul as our team.”

Martin added that fellow leaders senior Alexander Hoogmartens and redshirt sophomore Emon van Loben Sels – Johnson’s regular doubles partner – have helped keep the team unified and motivated.

UCLA’s crosstown bout against USC is slated to begin at 3 p.m.

“They beat us at our home place,” Martin said “That was the one we could taste. We were so close, but we didn’t get it. … There’s nothing else that can take that bad taste out of our mouth other than going over there and beating them there.”