Fresh off of a convincing sweep over Loyola Marymount to open
their season, the UCLA women’s tennis team is looking to
carry some early momentum into their match against a veteran UC
Santa Barbara team today. The No. 12 Bruins (1-0) are hosting the
Gauchos in what is their season opener at 1:30 p.m. at LATC.
“Our team is excited and they’re ready to go,”
UCLA coach Stella Sampras Webster said. “They love to
compete; they’d rather play a match than practice another
day.” The Gauchos, who return four of their starters from
last year’s team, have yet to record a victory against the
Bruins, compiling a forgettable 0-28 record against UCLA. This
year, UCSB may have one of their best chances as they are members
of an increasingly competitive Big West Conference which has four
schools ranked among the top 70 teams in the nation. The Gauchos
are the last of those teams, checking in at the 69th position, a
ranking that will likely drop if they are beaten this afternoon by
a solid Bruin squad. Although Sampras Webster feels the Gauchos
will provide the Bruins with a greater challenge than LMU, she has
decided to test out two new doubles teams at the No. 2 and No. 3
positions that have not yet been revealed. Sophomore Riza Zalameda
and senior Laura Gordon will remain at the No. 1 doubles spot after
recording a convincing victory against LMU last week.
“It’ll be good to see what these new teams can
do,” Sampras Webster said. At this point in the season, the
experienced coach is looking to make the best of her talented and
deep team by positioning them in ways most beneficial to the
overall team score. Though UCLA has a very young team, all the
Bruins now have dual match experience, as freshmen Ashley Joelson
and Anna-Viktoria Lind both picked up victories in doubles and
Joelson also added one in singles play in the season-opener.
“I was a little nervous at first,” Lind said.
“Now I think I am more comfortable and hopefully we can beat
(UCSB).” Lind picked up her first victory in doubles with
junior Alex McGoodwin, one of the more experienced Bruins on this
year’s squad, who is confident in the Bruins’
capabilities to capture a victory against the Gauchos.
“We’ve improved a lot and we’re looking forward
to playing against UCSB and looking to beat them,” McGoodwin
said. The singles lineup may also be changed around a bit since
Sampras Webster feels some players need to be rested, and others
deserve a chance to prove that they can contend among a talented
lineup. Regardless of who she decides to play, Sampras Webster
hopes her team will have a tougher challenge than it did when they
took the courts last week against LMU, giving her players
experience and hopefully a victory over a quality team.
“Santa Barbara will hopefully challenge us a bit,”
Sampras Webster said.
WELCOME BACK: The Bruins are also scheduled to
play host to the Rice Owls on Thursday. Owls’ assistant coach
Elizabeth Schmidt played for UCLA from 1997-2002 and was a doubles
All-American her freshman year as a Bruin.