The No. 15 UCLA women’s tennis team had no problem picking up where it had left off prior to heading to Wisconsin for the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
The Bruins (4-2) quickly leashed the No. 24 Fresno State Bulldogs on Friday afternoon to capture their third dual-match home victory of the season.
“Fresno State is a really talented team,” senior captain Alex McGoodwin said. “We came into it knowing that we could have a pretty tough match against them, so I think beating them 7-0 was really, really great for us.”
UCLA dismantled Fresno State in singles play after a slow start in doubles, where coach Stella Sampras Webster has been tweaking the lineup in hopes of finding the optimal Bruin doubles roster.
At the onset of the doubles point, it appeared as though UCLA would likely cruise for first tally of the afternoon, but Fresno State quickly found itself back in the swing of things, closing the gap the Bruins had created. “I think we kind of maybe paid attention a little bit more,” sophomore Ashley Joelson said. “I think we drifted away for a while, but it got a little close and we finished it out.”
The lineup shuffles aren’t restricted to the doubles teams, but also in singles play, as freshman Yasmin Schnack and junior Tracy Lin were swapped at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions, with Schnack playing one spot lower on the ladder.
With the switch, and Bruin junior Riza Zalameda scheduled to face Melanie Gloria, the nation’s fourth-ranked player, at the No. 1 singles position, Sampras Webster reminded her team not to overlook their opponent.
“Coach was telling us that the top three girls were good,” Zalameda said. “We just wanted to say that “˜No, we’re just as good.’ And, on top of that, everyone is seeing us as underdogs now and we want to prove ourselves right now.”
Zalameda came in as the heavy underdog in the matchup with Gloria, perhaps the most anticipated matchup of the day. Gloria couldn’t get anything started against Zalameda, however, as the Bruin dominated her opponent in nearly every aspect of the match and recorded a 6-2, 6-2 win.
Gloria is the highest-ranked player Zalameda has defeated since 2005, when she toppled then-No. 2 Julie Coin of Clemson in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Singles Championships.
“I tried to set the tone for the top three matches,” Zalameda said. “I just came out here and played my “˜A’ game.”
After Zalameda clinched the Bruins’ first singles victory, McGoodwin finished her match, winning 6-2, 6-2 and setting the stage for Schnack to clinch the overall win.
The closest match of the day came on court No. 3, where Lin found herself down a set to No. 49 Renata Kucerkova. Lin, ranked 61st nationally, found herself back in it in the opening games of the second set and went on to win in a third set super tiebreaker, 3-6, 6-1, 10-5.
“I think it was really important for our team to come and play at our home courts and play this well,” Sampras Webster said. “I’m really impressed with how our players have stayed motivated and it was a good win to get us ready for next week.”
“This is the extra confidence that we might need to pull out some big wins next weekend,” McGoodwin added.
UCLA doesn’t have much time to celebrate the win as they take on UC Irvine at home on Tuesday before traveling north to take on No. 9 Cal on Friday and the nation’s second-place team and conference-powerhouse Stanford on Saturday.
The Cardinal lost in the championship of the National Team Indoors to Georgia Tech, marking their first defeat since May 18, 2003, and ending an 89 dual-match winning streak.