With their top star injured and already having been thoroughly
beaten in doubles, UCLA women’s tennis team could easily have
folded to 24th-ranked Arizona.
Instead, three freshmen came out and played some of the most
clutch tennis of their early career, propelling the Bruins to a
nail-biting 4-3 victory.
The team trailed 3-2 with freshmen Jackie Carleton and Shilpa
Joshi still on the courts, both needing to win for the Bruins to
pull out the match. Joshi, playing in just her second collegiate
dual match and seeking her first win, split the first two sets with
Kristy Randono 5-7, 7-5.
Meanwhile, Carleton, playing at the top spot in place of the
injured Sara Walker, was entangled in a marathon match herself.
With her last six matches all going three sets, long, grueling
matches have become a force of habit for her.
“Jackie has to work really hard to win her matches,”
head coach Stella Sampras Webster said. “She makes you earn
every point.”
Her first two sets against Arizona’s Emilie Scribot both
went into tie-breakers, where she prevailed in the first but
dropped the second.
So, the Bruins were down to their final two sets, needing both
to win and needing two freshmen to do the job.
Joshi’s match went right down to the wire, where she took
the final set from Randono in the tiebreaker.
“It’s the first time she had to deal with that kind
of pressure and she came out a winner,” Sampras Webster said.
“She was nervous but did a good job of staying
composed.”
Carleton’s third set was slightly less nerve-racking, as
she finished off Scribot 6-3 to give the Bruins the victory.
“The top players have a lot more weapons,” Sampras
Webster said of Carleton moving to the top spot. “She’s
a hard worker and has really raised her level.”
Equally impressive, although not as down to the wire as
Carleton’s or Joshi’s matches, was the play of fellow
freshman Susi Wild. Wild defeated 31st-ranked Maja Mlakar 6-1, 3-6,
6-4 to put the Bruins in position for the victory.
Since coming to UCLA from Germany in January, Wild is 10-1 in
dual matches.
“You almost take her for granted,” Sampras Webster
said. “She’s been a great asset to the team and has
done a great job adjusting to being in a new country.”
As the season rolls along, it must be comforting knowing that a
team with such a penchant for close matches can count on its
freshmen to pull through.
“I forget they’re freshmen because they don’t
play like freshmen,” Sampras Webster said. “It shows
the future of our program.”