The injury bug that has plagued the UCLA women’s tennis
team throughout the season found a new victim over the weekend.
Thirty minutes before their match at Washington St. on Friday,
the No. 15 Bruins (13-8, 4-2 Pac-10) were forced to pull freshman
Jackie Carleton from the lineup. Although the team was able to
knock off the struggling Cougars 4-1 with its shuffled lineup, it
was unable to overcome No. 7 Washington on Saturday, losing
6-1.
“Bodies do break down and unfortunately we’re having
our share,” head coach Stella Sampras Webster said.
Going into the weekend matches, the Bruins expected to have a
full lineup, albeit not at its fullest strength. However, Carleton,
who has played in every match this year, came down with shin
splints that made even walking painful. With Carleton out, the
Bruins had to quickly rearrange both their doubles and singles
lineups.
“There was a lot of stress going into the match because of
having to make the changes,” Sampras Webster said.
“Jackie’s situation came out of nowhere.”
At the outset, it appeared as though Carleton’s absence
could be fatal to the team. Using three new doubles pairs, the
Cougars swept the Bruins. Sara Walker and Feriel Esseghir lost to
Lorena Arias and Chris Martinez 8-5 at No. 1, Laura Gordon and Susi
Wild fell to Orsolya Sallai and Annabel Stefanchuk 8-3 at No. 2,
and Anya Loncaric and Shilpa Joshi lost to Zsofia Fodor and Nora
Gaal 8-6 at No. 3.
However, the Bruins quickly rebounded to win the first four
singles matches before the match was called so the Bruins could
travel to face Washington the next day.
“After losing the doubles, the team came together and
dealt with the adversity,” Sampras Webster said.
Walker gave the most commanding performance at No. 1, crushing
Sallai 6-1, 6-0. Wild, moving up to Carleton’s regular No. 2
position, knocked off Arias 6-2, 7-6. At the No. 3 position,
Esseghir picked up her first singles win of the season, defeating
Martinez 6-3, 6-2.
“It’s great to see Feriel playing strong after her
injury,” Sampras Webster said. “She’s on her way
to being 100 percent soon.”
Sarah Gregg, who has been dealing with a hamstring injury, gave
the Bruins their fourth point with a 6-1, 7-5 win over
Stefanchuk.
However, against a stronger Husky team, the Bruins felt the
effects of a shorthanded lineup. In spite of returning to more of
their conventional doubles lineup, the Bruins lost all three
doubles sets for the third consecutive match.
Playing at the top spot, Walker and Gordon lost to No. 13 Claire
Carter and Darija Klaic 8-3. Teaming up for the first time,
Esseghir and Loncaric were unsuccessful, falling to Dea Sumantri
and Colleen Gray 8-3. Gregg and Wild came the closest to notching a
win, but came up short against Erin Boisclair and Erin Hoe 8-6.
Unlike their match the previous day, the Bruins were unable to
recover against the Huskies with a dominating singles performance.
Walker picked up the team’s only point with a 7-5, 7-6 (12)
over Sumantri.
“Washington is a really strong and deep team,”
Sampras Webster said. “We didn’t have our strongest
lineup. They deserved to win.”
Wild, Gordon and Loncaric were all defeated in straight sets.
Neither Gregg nor Esseghir completed their matches because of their
lingering injuries.
Once the outcome of the match became apparent, both players
retired.
“Sarah’s played quite a bit and hasn’t let her
hamstring heal,” Sampras Webster said. “And we’re
trying to bring Feriel back slowly so hopefully she won’t
have a relapse.”
As they head into their last weekend of Pac-10 dual matches
against top ranked Stanford and No. 4 Cal, the Bruins’
primary concern is their own health.
“We want to re-evaluate everyone on Tuesday and see
who’s ready to play,” Sampras Webster said.
“We’re going to do what’s best for the team and
not (do) anything that would hurt our chances in the
NCAAs.”
“We want to put ourselves in a position to win,” she
added. “But we don’t want to panic because we know we
haven’t played our strongest lineup yet or peaked.”