In her 14 years as head coach of UCLA’s tennis team, Stella Sampras Webster has never had a weekend quite like this.
“Huge victory, huge personal victory for all three of the coaches,” Sampras Webster said.
The No. 4 Bruins (11-1) defeated No. 11 Stanford 6-1 and No. 3 Cal 4-3 this weekend, sweeping the Cardinal and the Golden Bears in the same weekend for the first time in 21 years.
“It was great for our players ““ they were tested,” Sampras Webster said. “It’s great to see them come through and get both wins this weekend.
The coach added that playing Stanford has always been tough for the Bruins, so after the Friday victory, the UCLA squad was excited to take on Cal.
The Bruins were able to avenge their only loss of the year, a match in which Cal beat UCLA in a 4-3 decision at the National Team Indoors held in Madison, Wis. on Feb. 13.
“Everyone believed we could have beaten them at Team Indoors but we came up short so we definitely felt that we could beat them at home,” Sampras Webster said.
The Bruins hope to take some of the momentum and confidence gained from this weekend’s wins into today’s match when they travel across town to face No. 12 USC (7-3).
“Playing at ‘SC is always challenging, so we’re preparing them, preparing our freshmen,” Sampras Webster said. “It’s going to be a war. It doesn’t matter the rankings, the records ““ when we play against ‘SC anything can happen. We’ve got to be ready for tough crowds, it’d be a bit different thing for UCLA. It’s going to be challenging but I think our team is playing well enough to have a successful day.”
UCLA holds a 39-44 all-time record going into today’s match.
Because today’s match will not count towards conference standings, the Bruins will use it as a final tune-up before conference play officially begins this weekend when UCLA travels to Eugene, Ore. to take on Oregon.
Sampras Webster said that UCLA will need to start off strong at doubles to have a successful day against the Women of Troy.
“We struggled against Cal (at doubles)” she said. “‘SC’s tough. They’re a very good singles team. They’re pretty young but they do have some strong players. We need to play well, we need to compete well and deal with the adversity, deal with the fans, deal with the crowds, and whatever comes their way.”