The UCLA women’s tennis team will be in Hawaii to kick off spring break, but unlike the majority of the visitors on the islands, it will not be there on vacation.
The No. 8 Bruins (11-4) will take on the University of Hawai’i on Monday and Tuesday in the first-ever Mauna Lani Bay Tennis Classic, a two-day tournament that pits the Rainbow Wahine against a visiting opponent for two matches.
The matches follow a non-standard dual-match format, as the Bruins will play three doubles matches and eight singles matches against the Rainbow Wahine (5-9) on Monday. The two teams will repeat the process in reverse order the following day, but the two matches will count as only one result.
The Bruins are more than a week removed from their most recent match. The last time UCLA took the court, it defeated then-No.9 Baylor, the highest-ranked team it has beaten so far, in a convincing 6-1 victory.
UCLA will look to continue its recent and historic success, as it has fared quite well against Hawai’i. The last time the two teams met, the Bruins wiped out the Rainbow Wahine, 6-1, at the Los Angeles Tennis Center in 2007. UCLA visited the UH Tennis Complex just a year before with a similar result, shutting out the Rainbow Wahine 7-0.