By the time junior Chanelle Van Nguyen stepped on the court for the NCAA singles quarterfinals, she had already been playing tennis for 10 straight days, with only a few days of rest scattered throughout.
Just days before, the UCLA women’s tennis team had won the NCAA championship title, bringing UCLA’s grand total to 111 NCAA titles. Van Nguyen and her other teammates, who would be playing in the NCAA singles and doubles championship rounds, had little time to celebrate or even rest. They were faced with first round singles matches the very next day.
Freshman Jennifer Brady, the No. 8 seed, junior Robin Anderson, the No. 2 seed, and Van Nguyen, the No. 9-16 seed, all mustered up the energy needed to defeat their opponents in the first and second rounds of singles.
On the third day, though, fatigue became the real opponent.
Both Brady and Anderson lost in only two sets to players from California and Virginia, respectively. While Van Nguyen defeated Carol Zhao of Stanford in two sets and moved on to the quarterfinals, she ultimately fell to Ester Goldfeld of Duke in three sets.
“I think the team part of it is so much more rewarding for our players than the individuals,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “It’s almost like a letdown after the team just because of the excitement of playing a team event.”
The doubles tournament wasn’t immune to fatigue, either. During her first set against Clemson, Anderson felt something wet drip from her nose and quickly brought her hand up to check what was wrong.
When she pulled it away, she saw red.
Her nosebleed wasn’t caused by a hit, but a simple yet incapacitating combination of heat, humidity and exertion. After a 15-minute break, the bleeding subsided and Anderson and her doubles partner, Brady, took to the court once again. However, soon after play resumed, so did the bleeding, and both were forced to retire from the match. The No. 1 seeded doubles team in the country could not move on.
Sophomores Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips also fell in the first round of their doubles match against Baylor.
“There was a girl that was throwing up on the court. Everyone was struggling at that point,” Anderson said.
The upsets didn’t stop there. In the singles tournament, no competitor in the final four was seeded. With so many of the seeded teams playing nearly every day in the team tournament, both physical and mental energy were drained by the first day of the singles tournament.
“It’s really tough to maintain a high level for that long period of time,” Sampras Webster said. “You have players that have maybe not had that success and the ranking, they take advantage and they’re fresh and ready to play. They just take advantage of that situation.”
Despite this, several Bruins still earned All-American honors and an NCAA championship team title. Now, the Bruins plan to use the rest of the school year to enjoy the one thing they have missed these past few weeks: rest.
“We don’t have practice, so I’m definitely taking a couple days or weeks off,” Van Nguyen said. “I’m not going to play tennis for a while. I definitely need a break.”