After finishing their team season on an incomplete note, UCLA
women’s top three players headed into the NCAA singles
championships looking for some sense of finality.
In the team’s 4-0 quarterfinal loss to Duke on Friday,
Sara Walker, Jackie Carleton and Susi Wild all had their matches
suspended once the Blue Devils clinched the match. Three days
later, they returned to the Gainesville courts where their team
season ended in search of individual glory.
Playing on courts right next to each other, both Walker and
Carleton passed their first round test. In a rematch of last
year’s tournament, Walker once again faced Harvard’s
Courtney Bergman and came out on top for a second straight year,
6-0, 6-2. She will face Tennessee’s No. 2 player Tammy Encina
today at 10:30 a.m. EST.
“This is my last tournament so I want to do the best I
can,” the senior All-American said.
Carleton, playing in her first singles championship, also came
out strong. Despite still recovering from shin splints suffered
over a month ago, the freshman ousted Oregon’s Courtney Nagle
6-3, 6-2. She will face either Miami’s Melissa Applebaum or
Tulane’s Julie Smekodub today at 9 a.m. EST.
“Once I get my adrenaline going, I’m feeling as good
as can be expected,” Carleton said, although noting that she
is still definitely not feeling 100 percent.
Wild didn’t have the chance to forget the team’s
loss to Duke, as she faced the Blue Devils’ 19th-ranked
Amanda Johnson. Johnson, who played Carleton in the dual match, had
little trouble knocking off Wild 6-0, 6-3. Wild, also a freshman on
the Bruins’ young squad, finished the season ranked 50th with
a 19-12 overall record.