It took nearly five hours, but the short-handed No. 9 Bruins
defeated No. 17 Fresno State 4-3 at the Los Angeles Tennis Center
Wednesday.
UCLA has been plagued by injuries all year, the most recent of
which is a lower back strain suffered by All-American senior Sara
Walker, currently ranked No. 6 in the country.
Her injury limited her to doubles duty yesterday, where she
teamed with junior Lauren Fisher and registered an 8-4 win at the
No. 1 position. Walker is expected to return to singles play this
weekend when the team travels to Arizona, but Fisher, who saw her
first dual match action of the season on Friday at Pepperdine,
likely will not be available to play singles until at least
April.
“It feels good (to be back playing again), and I feel like
I’m getting better with every match,” Fisher said.
“Ultimately I want to play some singles, but I have to take
it slow because I can’t put too much pressure on my elbow too
early.”
The Bruins secured the doubles point for the second consecutive
match, sweeping all three matches. With the insertion of Fisher
into the lineup, the Bruins fielded three new doubles combinations.
At No. 2 doubles Jackie Carleton and Susi Wild won 8-7, and Laura
Gordon and Sarah Gregg turned in an 8-6 victory at No. 3.
“I was very happy to see us win the doubles point, and I
think the teams will definitely get better as the season goes
on,” UCLA head coach Stella Sampras Webster said.
“We’re just going to be patient and keep working with
them.”
Singles play was an adventure to say the least for the Bruins.
With Walker out of the lineup everyone had to play up a spot, and
freshmen Shilpa Joshi saw her first action of the dual match
season.
“Players really had to step up today with Walker out of
the line-up,” Sampras said. “I think our team did a
pretty good job with the change up.”
The Bruins got their first singles victory on the No. 2 court,
where Susi Wild continued her hot streak with a 6-1, 6-3 win over
Lucia Sainz.
The freshman from Germany has now won five straight singles
matches.
“She has been a very solid player for us,” Webster
said. “She is adjusting well to UCLA and to playing here and
I’ve been very pleased with her.”
On court three Gregg jumped out a quick lead with a 6-1
first-set win, but she just as quickly found herself in a 0-5 hole
in the second set.
“I switched off a little bit (early in the second
set),” Gregg said. “But every game was very close, they
all seemed to be going to deuce.”
Gregg managed to turn things around in impressive fashion,
winning the final seven games of the match en route to a 6-1, 7-5
victory.
The clinching victory came on court four for the Bruins where
Gordon recorded a 7-6, 6-3 win over Vlatka Jovanovic.
“I was a little shaky at times today, but I played well at
the end so that was good,” Gordon said. “I was
aggressive and got to the net as much as I could, but my serve
isn’t exactly great right now.”
Fresno State picked up wins on courts five and six, with Kristy
McRae and Katherin Winterhalter defeating Loncaric and Joshi
respectively.
The marquee match of the day was on court one, where Carleton
battled No. 27 Chloe Carlotti, who came into today’s match
with a perfect record in singles dual match play. After nearly
three hours of long rallies and quick momentum changes Carlotti
emerged with a 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (0) victory. Carleton led the second
set 5-1, but Carlotti took the next five games to gain a 6-5
advantage. Despite cramping in both of her legs, Carleton fought
off five match points to force a tie-breaker, but Carlotti won the
tie-breaker to secure the victory.
“Jackie plays tough matches. They are always long and she
works very hard,” Webster said. “She had opportunities
to win in the third set, but I think she will learn from this and
it won’t happen again.”