Four years ago, seniors Megan Lester, Morgan Thomas and Courtney Dolehide stepped onto the courts at Straus Stadium for their first practice as UCLA Bruins on the women’s tennis team. As freshmen, they didn’t quite know their place on the team and were all anxious. They had just joined one of the top-ranked tennis teams in the NCAA and taken on the pressure of competing as some of the top performers in the country.
Now, four years later, Lester, Thomas and Dolehide know their places well and are preparing for one last match at home in Straus Stadium Friday against USC. The televised match will include a celebration of Senior Day, with a ceremony between the doubles and singles matches.
Lester, a team manager now, came to the team as a freshman walk-on and played for the Bruins for two years before she became their manager.
“The girls really respect her, and she’s done really well as far as keeping her options open after school,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “She’s a hard worker, and I think she’s going to have lots of options after school.”
Thomas has also spent four years with the team, and played a singles match in the Pac-12 championships last year and played doubles matches against UC Santa Barbara and TCU this season. Sampras Webster said she leads the team as one of the fittest members. She has a “great, positive attitude” that is highly contagious.
Sampras Webster said the entire team will miss Thomas’ positivity and willingness to work hard to support her team. It is this same positivity that will be carrying her through her first few years out of college.
“I may be considering graduate school, but for now, I’m going to be moving to Austin, Texas, and working for Oracle,” Thomas said. “I’m hoping to be using tennis to find friends at a club or something along those lines.”
Dolehide, the third senior Bruin, is also unwilling to give up tennis after her days on the UCLA team are over. She is considering attending graduate school, but also hopes to coach tennis on the side.
“Tennis has always been a huge part of my life, and I’m really passionate about sports in general,” Dolehide said. “Right now, I’m definitely looking for something that embodies the excitement around athletics with also possibly an education.”
Though all three seniors have different post-college plans, they agree that the hardest part of moving on after college athletics is moving on from their family at the UCLA women’s tennis program.
“I am definitely going to miss the family,” Dolehide said. “I really don’t think that there are any other places or opportunities in life where you are working side by side with people that are just as passionate as you and just as driven as you.”
After the last 5-2 match against USC, the Trojans will be looking for revenge as the Bruins fight to add another win to their 20-2 record and earn their spot in the Pac-12 and NCAA championships.