A week from today, the UCLA women’s tennis team will be
playing its final dual match of the regular season.
But in that one-week span, the No. 14 Bruins will be competing
in four matches, the most they’ve had to play in such a short
period all season.
Making matters more difficult is that UCLA (12-4, 4-2 Pac-10)
will have to take on crosstown rival and fourth-ranked USC twice in
four days.
But the Bruins will first focus on keeping their perfect record
against the Oregon Ducks (12-7, 1-4) intact.
The Bruins host Oregon today at the Los Angeles Tennis Center,
hoping to extend their all-time mark against the fellow conference
school to 10-0.
“Looking at (Oregon’s) wins and losses, they look
like a pretty decent team, but we’re pretty confident that we
can walk away with a win,” freshman Ashley Joelson said.
The Oregon lineup features a solid doubles team in Dominika
Dieskova and Anna Olivos that is ranked No. 31 in the nation. The
duo will likely take on UCLA’s top tandem of senior Laura
Gordon and sophomore Riza Zalameda.
The Ducks could also potentially provide the Bruins with a
challenge at the top singles position, in which Dieskova and Gordon
are expected to face off against one another.
Dieskova’s national ranking was boosted after she handed
Stanford’s top singles player, Amber Liu, a 6-2, 6-2 defeat
when the two teams met at the end of March.
And just last week, Liu defeated Gordon 6-3, 6-1 as Stanford
handed UCLA its first conference loss of the season.
The Bruins understand that a win today would not only be
beneficial solely in the sense of improving their record, but it
would more importantly provide a boost before traveling to Marks
Tennis Stadium to take on the Trojans.
“Hopefully we get some confidence back going into our USC
matches next week,” Joelson said. “And I think that
will start with a win against Oregon.”
The Bruins were initially scheduled to take on the Trojans on
March 17, but three postponements later, they will first face USC
on Tuesday and then play host to them just three days later.
“It’s tough because we don’t have very much
time between matches to work on problems, but it will be good for
us because we need to pick up some matches before the season comes
to an end,” Joelson said.
“If we can even get one big win next week against USC,
that would be really huge for us heading into NCAAs.”