After weeks of rainouts and cancelled practices, the No. 11
women’s tennis team was finally able to take to the courts
against the Bay Area schools this weekend and received mixed
results.
Playing its first matches in nearly two weeks, UCLA fell to No.
1 Stanford, 6-1 Friday before bouncing back on Saturday to soundly
defeat No. 17 Cal, 6-1.
“It was difficult to play a top team like Stanford after
having almost six days off from tennis,” freshman Elizabeth
Lumpkin said. “It would have helped for us to have a little
more time to practice, but obviously we have no control over
that.”
What the Bruins did have control over was their doubles play
which was anchored by Riza Zalameda and Daniela Bercek, ranked No.
3 nationally.
The tandem dispatched of Stanford’s top duo of Alice
Barnes and Erin Burdette 9-8 (8) as the Bruins were able to swipe
the doubles point away from the Cardinal.
“I was really proud that we got that doubles point,”
Zalameda said. “It was really big for boosting our
confidence.”
However, the Bruins were unable to carry that momentum into the
singles matches as they were overcome by Stanford”˜s deep and
talented lineup.
Once again, UCLA was forced to juggle its own lineup due to an
injury when No. 3 senior Sarah Gregg sustained a minor strain to
her hamstring in warm ups.
But even had there not been an untimely lineup change, the
Bruins knew that defeating the Cardinal would have been a tall
task.
“We didn’t play as well as we could have, but we
weren’t too disappointed,” Zalameda said.
“You have to give Stanford a ton of credit, they are the
number one team in the nation. It was definitely a dose of reality.
Hopefully now that we have seen them play, we can put more pressure
on them when they come to our court,” he continued.
It did not take long, however, for the Bruins to put the
Stanford match behind them as they handily defeated the Golden
Bears just a day later.
“We wanted to redeem ourselves and regain our
confidence,” Zalameda said. “We knew that we could
handle them as long as we executed. We didn’t have to play
unbelievably well, just within our level.”
With that in mind, UCLA came out of the gates swinging, sweeping
the doubles point away from Cal before taking five of six singles
matches.
The Bruins’ only loss came in the No. 1 spot with No. 38
Bercek losing to No. 7 Suzy Babos 7-5, 6-2.
“We took care of business,” Lumpkin said. “I
think it was important for us to win that match and to not have it
be too close to show that we could come right back after playing
Stanford and still beat another good team.”
With what looks to be the first sunny period in weeks forecasted
in Los Angeles, the Bruins will now be able to return to practice
uninhibited in preparation for a showdown with cross-town rival
USC, which, barring rain, will take place Friday at the Los Angeles
Tennis Center.