It appeared as though the last thing that this year’s UCLA
women’s tennis team needed was in injury to one of its
members.
However, the No. 11 Bruins proved otherwise, capturing a shutout
victory against No. 17 Arizona State on Saturday without top
singles player Riza Zalameda.
Zalameda suffered a slight ankle injury in the Bruins’
first match of the weekend against Arizona, which had a similar 7-0
result.
The pair of shutout victories marked the fifth and sixth time
this year that the Bruins have not given up a point to their
opposition.
For UCLA (7-2), Saturday started with capturing the doubles
point.
In Zalameda’s place for doubles was freshman Anna-Viktoria
Lind, who teamed with senior Laura Gordon to play at the top
position.
Though the newly formed duo was unable to capture a win for the
Bruins, dropping an 8-6 decision, the remaining teams of junior
Alex McGoodwin and sophomore Elizabeth Lumpkin as well as sophomore
Tracy Lin and freshman Ashley Joelson, were both able to notch wins
and seal the doubles point for the Bruins.
“I think when we came out in the doubles, we knew we had
to get No. 2 and No. 3 because Riza wasn’t playing at
one,” Lin said.
Upon capturing the doubles point, the Bruins headed into singles
action, still without their top player.
However, with the void in the lineup, Gordon was able to compete
in her first singles match at the No. 1 spot.
“It was pretty exciting playing number one, but at first
it was weird,” she said.
Gordon quickly overcame any initial doubts and secured a 7-6,
6-1 lead to put the Bruins ahead 3-0 after her doubles partner,
Lind, won the Bruins’ first singles match.
Needing just one more match to put the Sun Devils out of reach,
UCLA looked to yet another freshman in Joelson.
Joelson secured the Bruins’ seventh victory of the season
with a 6-4, 6-4 win at the No. 4 position””mdash;the highest she has
played all season.
This weekend’s trip marked the first time that the
freshmen traveled with the team to compete in a dual match, but
that didn’t faze the two at all, as they were both victorious
in singles.
“I think it was such a good experience for Ashley and
Anna-Viktoria to play two matches on the road and get some big
wins,” Gordon said.
The Sun Devils had been unbeaten prior to this weekend when they
lost consecutive matches to both USC and UCLA.
The No. 4 Trojans defeated the Sun Devils 5-2 with all their
players in the lineup. The Bruins blanked Arizona State without its
top player, showing a definite improvement after suffering
back-to-back losses to Pepperdine and Stanford, the only two of the
season.
“We played two good Pac-10 teams and we came out with two
decisive wins,” Gordon said. “It’s a pretty big
confidence booster going into the second half of the
season.”