She can’t lower her expectations, especially not after
last season’s run in the NCAA Individual Tournament. And Riza
Zalameda of the UCLA women’s tennis team certainly got off to
a good start this year, defeating Carol Salge of Clemson on
Wednesday. “I think if I keep playing the way I am,
it’s going to be pretty tough to beat me,” Zalameda
said. After winning the first set, the Bruin sophomore found
herself on the losing end of a tiebreaker during the second set,
and was forced to bounce back in the third, finally winning by a
score of 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-2. “The match was closer than the
score makes it seem,” Zalameda said. “In the third set
I just concentrated on holding my serve and tried to break
hers.” She feels confident with her chances of repeating a
similar run to last year’s when she advanced to the
semifinals of the same tournament. Her chances seemed to improve
drastically as Anne Yelsey, a 9-16 seed from Stanford, dropped out
of the singles draw. The two Pac-10 foes would have likely met in
the second round today, but Zalameda will instead face off against
a much lower seeded player in Kim Coventry of Kentucky. Just before
Zalameda’s win, senior Laura Gordon was beaten by a 9-16 seed
in Zuzana Cerna of Baylor, 6-4, 6-0. “It wasn’t
anything she did, but more so what I didn’t do,” Gordon
said of her singles finale as a Bruin. “She didn’t
really give me any rhythm to work with.” Also competing in
Wednesday’s action were sophomore Tracy Lin and junior Alex
McGoodwin. Lin cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Blair DiSesa of
Rice and faces sixth-seeded Amanda Fink of USC. Meanwhile,
McGoodwin lost to Meg Racette of Iowa who will meet ex-Bruin and
third-seeded Daniela Bercek of Duke in the second round.
TAKE TWO: Gordon and Zalameda will also team up
to compete in the doubles draw of the tournament, hoping to oust 31
other teams. The No. 12 duo opens up play against Marshall’s
top doubles team of Kellie Schmitt and Lynzee Kever, who are ranked
No. 56 nationally. “Hopefully it’ll be a good round for
us,” Gordon said. “We have some confidence coming in
after some big wins in dual matches and it’s a good chance to
show that we’re one of the top teams in the nation.”
“I think our prospects are looking good,” Zalameda
added. “We’re both really excited.”