The No. 9 UCLA women’s tennis team hosted No. 11 Stanford and No. 8 California on Friday and Saturday, respectively, in its final home matches of the regular season.
Unfortunately for the Bruins, things went south relatively quickly against both of their rivals from Northern California.
The Bruins (13-5, 1-2 Pac-10) managed only one point in each match, falling to both schools by a score of 6-1.
UCLA dropped both doubles points and managed only one win in each match in singles, both of which came on the backcourts. Junior Stephanie Wetmore defeated Stanford’s freshman Logan Hansen at Court No. 6 on Friday and senior Ashley Joelson topped California’s senior Marion Ravelojaona at Court No. 5 on Saturday for the Bruins’ only points this weekend.
It was fitting that Joelson, the only senior playing against California (12-4, 3-1 Pac-10), was the lone Bruin to win on Senior Day. She and fellow senior Anna-Viktoria Lind were honored before the match ““ their final contests at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
Things started out well enough for the Bruins against the Golden Bears in doubles as Wetmore and freshman Carling Seguso dispatched of California’s sophomore Marina Cossou and senior Claire Ilcinkas with little difficulty, winning 8-3.
However, UCLA would go on to drop the final two doubles matches and fail to win the doubles point for the second consecutive dual match and just the fourth time this season.
The Bruins have not won any of the matches in which they have dropped the doubles point.
Things went downhill from there for the Bruins, who couldn’t recapture the momentum in singles play.
The Bruins lost the first three matches to seal the loss, Joelson’s win brought the score to 4-1, but Seguso and sophomore Andrea Remynse both fell short of comeback wins to complete the 6-1 scoreline.
Junior Yasmin Schnack, who did not play in singles against the Cardinal due to illness, went down 6-1, 6-1 to California’s Jana Juricova at the No. 1 position and did not look like her usual self.
“(Schnack) was feeling a bit better today than she was yesterday,” coach Stella Sampras Webster said after Saturday’s match.
“She didn’t have a fever and wasn’t feeling dizzy (like she was Friday), so we knew today that she could at least finish her match,” Sampras Webster added.
It was more of the same for the Bruins on Saturday.
The main difference from the showdown against California was that Wetmore won her singles match when the outcome of the dual match was still in question. However, Stanford (12-3, 3-1 Pac-10) managed to close out the last four singles matches to take a 6-1 victory back to Palo Alto.
UCLA has not won a dual match since narrowly defeating No. 20 Arizona State on March 12. The three-match losing streak is the Bruins’ first since April 2003.
Joelson and Sampras Webster had similar theories as to why the Bruins seemed so suddenly hapless in defeat.
“I think that our spirit is a little down for some reason,” Joelson said.
“Our competitive spirit was not there this weekend,” Sampras Webster said.
“The way we lost was very disappointing. We want to learn from this weekend and just get better,” she added.
1981 CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM HONORED: UCLA’s 1981 championship team was honored during the break between doubles and singles on Saturday.
The 1981 Bruins won the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women’s penultimate championship game prior to the NCAA becoming the sole governing body for collegiate women’s tennis after the 1982 season.
The Bruins held a reunion for former players over the weekend. More than 100 players turned up for the event.
The big highlight of Saturday night’s banquet was the distribution of championship rings to the 1981 AIAW champions.
The big highlight of Saturday night’s banquet was the distribution of championship rings to the 1981 AIAW champions.