The UCLA women’s tennis team doesn’t compete in its first official team match until January, but that’s not stopping some players from representing the blue and gold in tournament play this fall.
Last week, four Bruins played in the Jack Kramer Invitational, showcasing their talent while gaining crucial tournament experience and valuable preparation for the season.
Tuesday, senior Chanelle Van Nguyen, junior Kyle McPhillips and junior Catherine Harrison traveled across the country to participate in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship. The tournament hosts many of the nation’s top-ranked players and kicks off Thursday morning in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
While the Bruins said they are excited to make the cross country trip to compete against talented players from schools around the nation, they are aware that indoor tennis comes with a different set of challenges than conventional outdoor tennis.
Just as the style of play changes on grass or clay courts, indoor tennis is more up-tempo and fast-paced, with the ball moving more rapidly on the surface. Consequently, indoor tennis rewards quickness and strong serving more than typical outdoor matches do.
“I think it’s going to be a challenge for any West Coast team that’s going out to New York, especially because there are no indoor facilities here in Southern California,” said associate head coach Rance Brown.
Brown, who is the only coach accompanying the players to New York, will have to take full advantage of the one-hour time slot that UCLA has been given to practice indoors on Wednesday.
“There’s no sun, no wind, so we’re just going to try to get the kids used to the speed; it’s a lot faster indoors,” Brown said. “Luckily, they all have had a lot of personal experience indoors, so we’ll hopefully get them into a rhythm and have them feeling good about things (before their first matches).”
Playing in the singles draw for the Bruins will be Van Nguyen, who automatically qualified for the tournament by reaching the finals in the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships in October. Van Nguyen says her strongest attributes as a player – speed and quickness – are qualities that will serve her well indoors. As the second seed in women’s singles division, Van Nguyen said she’s confident she will be able to compete at a high level, despite her lack of recent indoor training.
“I haven’t played a tournament since All-Americans, the first tournament back when school started. So we’ll see how I play (in New York), but I feel like I’ve been playing well,” Van Nguyen said. “We haven’t had much practice indoors, but I don’t think that will have much of an effect on me.”
The unseeded tandem, McPhillips and Harrison, qualified for the doubles draw of the tournament by winning the consolation bracket of the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships. The third-year teammates often play doubles together and have accumulated numerous big wins over the years, most notably in last year’s NCAA Championship Final against North Carolina. Their first round bye will give them extra rest for their first matchup against opponents from the University of Florida in the Round of 16.
Senior Robin Anderson – a finalist in each of the last two years at the National Indoor Championship – qualified again this year by championing the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships in October, but opted to not return to New York, feeling no need to avenge her near victories. Anderson, a native New Jerseyan, competed in Texas last week in the pro tournament John Newcombe Women’s Pro Challenge and said she felt that making another long trip would cause her to be away from class for too long.
“It would have been really hard for me to miss two straight weeks of school,” Anderson said. “I did really well last year and I did really well the year before, so as much as I wanted to go home to play, It just wouldn’t have been worth it for me to go back.”
The USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship is an individual competition that is one of the most important tournaments of the year for many participants, but the Bruins are chiefly focused on winning the NCAA Championships in the spring. They said they consider this week as more of an opportunity for the girls to gain more high-level tournament experience before the season commences.
“We always have high expectations, and we do for this tournament, but we want the kids to play well and get better. At this point in the year, the outcome isn’t what we really push for,” Brown said. “It would be nice if they do well, but it’s not the end of the world (if they don’t) … Peaking in May is what’s most important.”