One day after coming off its second 4-3 loss to No. 1 Stanford, the UCLA women’s tennis team showed that being able to hang with the nation’s toughest team was no fluke by beating No. 8 Cal.
The No. 13 Bruins were even able to capture the doubles point against the Bears, a feat that they have struggled to do for much of the season.
Even though UCLA was playing without two of its key players, freshman Yasmin Schnack and senior Alex McGoodwin, the newly formed doubles teams were able to rise to the challenge.
“We knew we didn’t have our strongest teams out there in our lineup, but I feel like our team is really strong and we make use of what we have,” junior Riza Zalameda said.
Zalameda teamed with sophomore Ashley Joelson at the No. 1 doubles position. The duo was able to beat the nation’s second-seeded team of Susie Babos and Zsuzsanna Fodor, 8-5.
After the Bruins captured the doubles point, Cal was able to jump back into the match in singles play by winning three straight matches, taking a 3-1 lead over the home team.
However, in the remaining three matches, UCLA had already captured the first sets and were cruising in the second sets. The Bruins were able to tie the score at 3-3 with wins from Zalameda and fellow junior Tracy Lin at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions, both of whom dropped their singles matches just a day before.
The Bruins’ top two players beat Babos and Fodor, the nation’s No. 4 and No. 13 players, respectively.
“It was a good day for me,” Zalameda said, “I took the Stanford loss really hard and I just had to channel it into yesterday’s match.”
The match came down to court No. 5, where sophomore Anna-Viktoria Lind was well ahead of No. 124 Marion Ravelojaona and eventually sealed the win for her team.
“I mainly just dropped the loss to Stanford from my mind and started focusing on the next match instead,” Lind said. “I think it actually helped me to get more ready for the next match.”
Lind and freshman Stephanie Wetmore have filled the void created by the loss of Schnack and McGoodwin to injuries, and have been able to hang with the nation’s premier teams, showing the depth of the Bruin lineup this season.
Wetmore cruised in her singles match against the Cardinal on Friday and teamed with junior Elizabeth Lumpkin to win the Bruins’ only match in doubles against Stanford.
“I think Stephanie and I showed that they don’t have to worry about being injured because we can step up and compete with these top teams,” Lind said. “It really shows how deep our team is since everyone can beat anyone at any spot.”
With the win over Cal, UCLA moves closer to achieving one of its goals for the season, which is to host an NCAA Regional, as they were unable to do so last season. As the Bruins have just two matches remaining ““ against Pepperdine and USC ““ they look to remain in the top 16 in order to accomplish the feat.
“That was definitely one of our goals, but we still have to make sure we take care of the next two matches and finish the season off strong after building up this momentum from these last two matches,” Zalameda said.