Raindrops that washed away most of the second day of the Pac-12 Championships ceased to fall in Ojai by Saturday, but early round defeats started pouring in this past weekend during the conclusion to UCLA’s pre-NCAA Tournament schedule.
The tournament, comprised of a championship and invitational draw for both singles and doubles play, saw no Bruin advance past the quarterfinals.
Each of UCLA’s top seeds in the singles and doubles championship draws only partially exited the tournament on their own terms, as coach Stella Sampras Webster and her players agreed that winning the individual tournament was not worth the risk of late season injuries.
Freshman Robin Anderson, the only player from UCLA to win a match in the singles championship draw, did not finish the third set of her quarterfinal match because of back problems.
In doubles championship play, sophomore Courtney Dolehide and junior Pamela Montez, who are the No. 9 doubles team in the country despite playing only 10 games with each other this dual match season, rolled 8-1 during the first round.
The pair’s run was cut short though, as Dolehide’s foot injury shelved the duo in their second round match against the USC team of Zoe Scandalis and Valeria Pulido.
Fellow freshman Chanelle Van Nguyen teamed up with Anderson for a letdown in doubles championship play.
The pair jumped out to a 7-2 lead against a USC duo, only to drop seven straight games in their opening round defeat.
“I think we played awesome for our first time (playing together), but we just weren’t putting away our shots. If we did play more doubles together, we’d be better,” Van Nguyen said.
UCLA’s lone representative in the doubles invitational, the tandem of Holly Fleming and Morgan Thomas, found itself fully invested in a rare outing.
“We’re definitely intense, and very emotional,” said Fleming, a redshirt junior who had teamed with sophomore Thomas for a 2-1 match record coming into the weekend.
Fleming and Thomas’ fire, however, could not save them from the same issues Anderson and Van Nguyen had in putting points away.
The team that had not played a dual match this year opened the tournament with an 8-2 upset of the invitational draw’s No. 3 seed, only to fall 8-2 in the following round.
“We just started a little late, and it was a big hole to get out of,” Fleming said.
“We’re both risk-takers, and we like to take control of points rather than hang back.
“The team (we lost to) was tougher (than the team we beat) and didn’t allow us to take control of the point. They brought it to us,” Fleming said.
While UCLA as a whole came away empty-handed, senior Carling Seguso noticed a sunny disposition among her teammates throughout the tournament.
“Everyone’s smiling and happy because NCAAs are coming up,” Seguso said.
“I (was) already thinking about NCAAs … and (that) next week, we have a week of hard practice, and my mind (was) not so much in Ojai.”