W. TENNIS Today ““ Saturday ITA National
Intercollegiate Indoors Columbus, Ohio
Starting today, two Bruins will have the chance to show how they
stack up against some of the nation’s best at the ITA
National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, held in Columbus,
Ohio.
Junior Riza Zalameda and freshman Yasmin Schnack will face off
against players from throughout the country in a battle for one of
the most coveted fall season titles.
“I feel that they’re talented enough to beat anyone
in the tournament this year,” UCLA assistant coach Rance
Brown said.
For Zalameda, an entry into the tournament was almost expected,
as she received one of seven at-large selections.
But the task was tougher for Schnack, as she had to win her way
into the finals of the ITA Regional Championships, hosted in San
Diego on Oct. 19-24.
“It’s always a pleasant surprise to see how your
freshmen come in and perform,” Brown said. “(Schnack)
was recruited as one of the top incoming freshmen in the country
and we expected her to come in while handling school and everything
else and still do well. So far, she’s done just
that.”
Schnack will take the court against Shadisha Robinson of South
Florida in the first round, while Zalameda is matched up against
Megan Falcon of LSU. If Zalameda were to advance to the second
round, she would likely take on the No. 1 seed, Suzi Babos of
Cal.
“I would like to try to win the tournament,”
Zalameda said. “I think I’ve always been capable of
doing it. Sometimes you just get bad draws, bad days, bad luck, but
I think this is definitely a good opportunity for me.”
For the freshman, though, the tournament was one she
didn’t anticipate playing in.
“I didn’t expect to be in this tournament, so
it’s kind of a shock,” Schnack said. “I’d
love to win, but we’ll see how it goes.
BRUINS ELSEWHERE: While two Bruins travel to
Ohio, the remainder of the team will stay in California and travel
to Palm Springs to play in the Palm Desert Classic this
weekend.
In the last tournament involving teams from the Southern
California, the Bruins were dominant, sending five players to the
quarterfinals before they started to eliminate one another.
“I think a lot of us got a lot of matches in at Regionals,
and that’ll help us coming into this tournament,”
junior Elizabeth Lumpkin said. “There are a lot of good teams
there, and there’ll be opportunities for us all to get wins
that should help us get higher individual rankings.”
Though Lumpkin lost to USC’s Sarah Fansler ““ who
eventually defeated Schnack for the championship ““ in the
third round of regionals, she looks to rebound and improve her play
this weekend.
“I played pretty well last tournament,” Lumpkin
said. “I want to try to stay consistent but at the same time
be aggressive and try to close out on the big points.”