For the UCLA women’s tennis team, two heads appear to be better than one.
Hidden within the multitude of individual players’ scores and statistics compiled throughout the course of this season lies one aspect of the Bruins’ performance that can still be denoted as “perfect.”
In every dual match this season, the team has managed to capture the lone doubles point up for grabs and tip the scoreboard 1-0 in UCLA’s favor at the onset of singles play.
Landing the doubles point lends the winning team a decisive advantage, and ensures that only three of the six singles matches, a mere 50 percent, must go UCLA’s way for the team to secure a victory.
This characteristic of a now-No. 2 ranked UCLA team (17-1) comes, in part, from the consistently dominant play from doubles teammates junior Robin Anderson and freshman Jennifer Brady.
“They’ve done a great job this season. Robin’s more of a setter upper and Jen is more of a put-away-volleys, very aggressive player,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “They both have big serves and good returns, they just have all the tools of a great doubles team.”
Fittingly, this tandem of Anderson and Brady lays claim to the title of No. 1 doubles team in the nation, boasting an undefeated 14-0 record in finished dual meet doubles matches this season.
Like pieces of a puzzle, Anderson and Brady’s style of play complements the other’s, with each capitalizing on big serves to easily put away their opponents.
“We usually win our service games, and so it’s always a matter of breaking,” Anderson said. “We both are really solid from the baseline so our goal is to set up the other person at the net and be able to put away the points.”
In the midst of this unblemished doubles run for Anderson and Brady, the secret to their success on the court may lie tangent to their friendship off it.
Brady admits to gelling off the court as friends as a factor in their dominant run, while Anderson said they even allowed some of that carefree fun to find its way back into their matches.
“We get scolded a few times for this but we like to laugh and have fun on the court,” Anderson said.
What they can’t be scolded for, however, is their ability to consistently dominate doubles play, match after match.
“As a team they get along very well, the chemistry is great because they have each other’s back, they have a lot of respect for each other so that when one is not playing well, the other one picks it up,” Sampras Webster said. “They can just work really well together and even if they weren’t playing so well, they still found a way to win.”