It was a week of the unusual for the UCLA women’s tennis
team.
For the first time in each player’s career, the Bruins
would take on the same opponent in the same week.
Not only that, but the team just so happened to be crosstown
rival USC.
In their first matchup against the No. 3 Trojans on Tuesday, the
No. 15 Bruins traveled across town and dropped a 4-3 decision. But
the team had two days to make adjustments and come out strong at
home.
By the end of the Bruins’ 5-2 loss Friday, however, it was
obvious that the Trojans had made adjustments of their own before
entering the hostile Los Angeles Tennis Center.
The USC team jumped ahead early and seemed to take the energy
out of UCLA’s largest crowd of the season when it captured
the doubles point with ease, winning by a score of 8-3 on each
court.
“Doubles was disappointing because we focused on it during
practice after losing it on Tuesday,” sophomore Elizabeth
Lumpkin said.
But the Bruins knew they weren’t out of the match at that
point, having given their crosstown rival a challenge in the
earlier matchup after dropping the match’s first point.
With the doubles point decided, the stage was set for another
strange occurrence.
The Bruins had dropped three matches ““ on courts No. 1, 2
and 6 ““ on Tuesday, but jumped to leads on all three courts
at the onset of play.
But Tuesday’s winners seemed to have trouble fighting off
their Trojan counterparts, as sophomore Tracy Lin, junior Alex
McGoodwin and freshman Ashley Joelson all dropped their matches
after beating their same opponents just days earlier.
“I think it’s hard to play the same person twice in
one week,” Lumpkin said. “It’s hard to beat
someone twice in a row. It’s hard because the person that
loses definitely comes back stronger,” senior Laura Gordon
said.
Gordon, playing in her last home match, was the only Bruin who
saw the same result as on Tuesday. But her loss came after the team
had already lost the battle, which was equally as close as the one
the teams had engaged in just days earlier.
“Even though the score didn’t show it, we know we
were very close,” Gordon said.
The native of Aspen, Colo., displayed perhaps the most
spectacular showing of her career, bringing fans to their feet as
they chanted her name in a third-set super-tiebreaker that
didn’t go in her favor.
“It was disappointing to lose, but it was a good way to
end my career at home because there were a lot of fans and it was
really intense,” Gordon said.
“It was the most exciting and fun match that I’ve
played in college because of the atmosphere and the way our team
came together even though we didn’t win.”