W. tennis
caught off
guard by
Pacific, 5-3
By Chris Isidro
The UCLA women’s tennis team expected a tune-up Thursday
afternoon. Instead they got dismantled 5-3 by the Pacific Tigers at
the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
The fourth-ranked Bruins did not come ready to play. Not only
were they unable to field six players for singles due to injury,
many of the Bruins on the court were not playing up to their
ability.
"It was an embarrassing loss," UCLA head coach Bill Zaima said.
"It was embarrassing that we couldn’t field more than three healthy
players."
Second-ranked Jane Chi continued her recent woes. The Bruin
junior has struggled since capturing the No. 1 position in the
March rankings. Since then, Chi has battled in several
three-setters, including three-hour battles against USC’s Suzie
Italiano and Stanford’s Ania Bleszynski.
Chi did not appear to break out of her dry spell against Tracy
Lee. The Tiger senior pounded away on Chi’s ground strokes and
dictated most of the points. After taking the first, Lee took an
early break in the following set and looked at two match points in
the eighth game.
Chi withstood two 15-ball rallies to delay the upset. But down
6-5, Chi never asserted herself in the big points and allowed Lee
to control the baseline. At match point, Chi could only send a
heavy Lee forehand into the net.
"I don’t know what came over me today," Chi said. "People were
asking me if I was on drugs."
Lee played a smart match, applying the pressure on the Bruin
junior without pressing for winners. The Tiger’s constant attack
induced Chi to make the errors.
"I started playing well from the very beginning," Lee said. "I
tried to remain calm and patient, even when I was losing."
For the third time in a week, UCLA entered doubles down 4-2. The
Bruins were pressed to field three doubles squads, finally turning
to walk-on Michelle Jannone and freshman Kelly Rudolph, who has
been recuperating from knee surgery, to fill the void.
The tandem started slowly, dropping the first set 6-1 and
falling behind 2-0 in the second. Then Jannone, making her third
appearance this season, rose to challenge. She began striking the
ball well. Volleys which found the back wall earlier were suddenly
painting the corner.
The Bruins’ No. 3 tandem reeled off eight of the next nine games
to lead 2-0 in the third set. It was then the weight of the
must-win situation landed on top of the walk-on senior. Jannone had
trouble finding the court and the duo could not hold on, losing
6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the deciding match.
"It was really cool," Jannone said. "I was having a good time
and I was really playing well  until I started to think."
The Bruins will not have much time to dwell upon the loss; they
visit USC on Saturday. UCLA handled the women of Troy 5-1 two weeks
ago, but will go to University Park a different team.
"I hope that we’ll have our people back for Stanford and Cal
next week," Zaima said. "It’s too bad we can’t put much of a team
out there against USC this weekend."