While the Bruins were on their home courts over the weekend,
their minds were already on Georgia.
The tenth-seeded UCLA women’s tennis team cruised through
the first two rounds of the NCAA Regionals, effortlessly blanking
Illinois State on Friday 4-0 before defeating Pac-10 counterpart
Washington by the same score on Saturday.
With the weekend sweep, the Bruins punched their ticket to
Athens, Ga., for the NCAA Round of 16 next week.
“We just wanted to beat Washington and get it over
with,” freshman Riza Zalameda said.
“We knew we were going to Athens. It wasn’t really a
question of if we were going to go or not.”
Despite not surrendering a point all weekend, UCLA coach Stella
Sampras Webster still believes her team can perform better.
“I wouldn’t say we played great in singles,”
Sampras Webster said of the match against the Huskies.
“But we played pretty well. I knew that Washington was
going to come out fired up for the singles and weren’t going
to give up, but we handled the pressure.”
After dominating the doubles point against Washington, UCLA
(17-5) ran into trouble in singles play, as Washington battled to
keep their postseason hopes alive.
“Everyone was not playing their best tennis today,”
said Zalameda, who clinched the win with a hard-fought 6-3, 6-4
victory over Dinka Hadzic.
“In my match, I was really frustrated because I’m
expected to win and I know my game is better than hers.”
Even if the Bruins weren’t at their best, their efforts
were more than good enough to polish off the Huskies. Sophomore
Daniela Bercek had little difficulty defeating Dea Sumantri 6-1,
6-3 on Court 1 to put the Bruins up 2-0.
“It wasn’t easy,” Bercek said. “But I
was feeling very confident so I finished my match fast.”
After Bercek knocked off Sumantri, junior Laura Gordon
dispatched Stephanie Svanfeldt 7-5, 6-4 on Court 6 to put the
Bruins one win away from clinching. Zalameda then closed the door
on Washington’s season on Court 2, securing UCLA’s spot
in the NCAA Championships.
“We know that if we have a bad day, we could be
done,” Sampras Webster said. “We’re looking
pretty good, but we’re prepared to take it one match at a
time.”
With the two victories, UCLA has now compiled an impressive 10
wins in their last 11 matches, losing only to No. 1 Stanford in
that span.
Awaiting UCLA on Thursday will be crosstown rival USC, who the
Bruins beat 5-2 in their regular-season finale.
Last season, the Bruins beat the Trojans in the Round of 16
during their run to the finals.
This year, UCLA knows it’s not going to be sneaking up on
any teams. And that doesn’t bother the players one bit.
“I don’t feel any pressure,” Bercek said.
“Last year, nobody expected us to get into the finals, so
this year there are expectations, but we don’t think about
it.”