With a pair of 4-0 victories in the first and second rounds of the NCAA Championships, the UCLA women’s tennis team has earned a berth into the Round of 16 in Tulsa, Okla.
The Bruins (20-5) defeated Buffalo and Denver on Friday and Saturday, respectively, setting up a showdown with an opponent they are quite familiar with ““ USC.
“You could definitely tell we hadn’t competed in a few weeks, so we weren’t as sharp as we normally would’ve been, but I’m happy with the way we competed and fought,” UCLA coach Stella Sampras Webster said.
The UCLA team, which left for Tulsa on Sunday afternoon, will spend the next few days leading up to Thursday’s match against USC getting acclimated to the weather and conditions at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
The Trojans and Bruins have met twice already during the regular season, but both Sampras Webster and her team understand that, even with two solid wins over USC, the Women of Troy can pose quite a threat.
“Anything can happen in the NCAA Tournament, so we’re not going to take anything lightly, even though we’ve had two great matches against them this year,” senior Alex McGoodwin said.
McGoodwin and with fellow seniors Tracy Lin, Elizabeth Lumpkin and Riza Zalameda competed in the last home matches of their careers over the weekend.
It couldn’t have ended it on a better note for McGoodwin than getting the decisive fourth win of the afternoon over Denver with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Bhavani Tirumurti on court No. 6.
The stage was set for the clinching win by a pair of wins in doubles play and wins from freshman Andrea Remynse on court No. 4 and Zalameda at the top court.
Though the Bruins won the doubles point, Sampras Webster still feels that the team members have more work to do before they will be at their top level.
Some of the rustiness may be attributed to the fact that the Bruins are playing with sophomore Yasmin Schnack for the first time in several weeks .
The rest may be attributed to the fact that UCLA hadn’t played a match in over two weeks.
But now, the Bruins must make their adjustments quickly before they take the courts in Tulsa on Thursday afternoon.
“It’s going to be a war, but I know our team is up for it,” Sampras Webster said. “We’re just taking one match at a time.
“We definitely need to work hard to beat USC, even though we’ve beaten them twice this year.”
MEN’S TENNIS: The men’s tennis team followed suit, defeating Eastern Washington and Wisconsin on Saturday and Sunday, setting up a Round of 16 match against Florida State, which narrowly ousted Southern Alabama by a 4-3 score.
The Bruins (23-1) depart this afternoon to prepare for the upcoming Friday match.
While UCLA was able to quickly dispatch of Eastern Washington, the Badgers gave the Bruins a bigger challenge in the second round, starting in the doubles point.
It took a 9-7 victory by Holden Seguso and Mathieu Dehaine on court No. 2 to clinch the doubles point.
From there, it didn’t get any easier, but the Bruins clinched the match with Michael Look’s three-set victory on court No. 4.
After losing the first set 4-6, Look went on an impressive run, losing just one game in the remaining two sets.
UCLA also got wins in straight sets from two of its veteran seniors, Mathieu Dehaine and Jeremy Drean, on court No. 3 and No. 5, respectively.
When play was suspended, Harel Srugo and Holden Seguso were about to begin their third sets, and Nick Meister led his match 7-5, 2-3.