The UCLA women’s tennis team traveled to Pepperdine yesterday to make up a rained out match from two weeks ago. Despite dropping two singles matches, the Bruins were not about to let anything else wash out their chance at another solid victory.
The No. 3 Bruins (4-0) were led by their top three singles players, but it was some of the younger players that may have benefited the most from the experience.
“It was our first trip and it was good,” coach Stella Sampras Webster said. “It was good for our freshmen to see what it was like on the road. Our team competed well on the road today. We had some tough matches, and we did a good job of not breaking down.”
UCLA dropped one of the three doubles matches, as No. 41 Pepperdine’s No. 2 team capitalized on some mistakes by Bruin freshman Carling Seguso and senior Ashley Joelson.
“Our doubles can still use improving,” Sampras Webster said. “We need to develop some kind of consistency where partners find a way to win. We need to be able to find a way to win those matches.”
Once the singles matches started, however, it was not long before the Bruins put the victory in the bag.
“I was really pleased with Seguso. She had a really tough (singles) match and won in three sets, and did a good job competing. We hadn’t seen her play a whole lot, so it’s great to get to know her better as a player.”
At the culmination of an arduous six-day stretch in which they played four matches, UCLA will face No. 65 UC Irvine today at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
The Bruins have defeated their opponents handily, sweeping No. 64 Minnesota 4-0 on Saturday and topping No. 23 Louisiana State 4-1 on Sunday.
UC Irvine (1-2) is coming off a weekend in Honolulu in which they edged out Hawaii, 4-3 but fell to San Diego State, 5-2. The Anteaters advanced all the way to the finals of the Big West Conference Tournament last year before getting blanked by Long Beach State 4-0 in the championship round.
The Bruins have shown in the past that they are capable of beating the Anteaters.
Since the 2000-2001 season, the Bruins have dropped only four points to the Anteaters, two of which came in UCLA’s 5-2 victory last year.
Since taking over as coach in 1996, Sampras Webster’s UCLA teams have never lost to UC Irvine, amassing a record of 10-0 against the Anteaters.