Monday, 4/21/97 Bruins finish season with split matches UCLA
can’t measure up to Stanford after beating California
By Christie DeBeau Daily Bruin Contributor The UCLA women’s
tennis team split its last matches of the season with a 6-3 win
over California on Friday, followed by a disappointing 8-1 loss to
Stanford on Saturday. The weekend started out great for UCLA, as
the fifth-ranked Bruins took four of the six singles matches and
two of the three doubles matches in defeating No. 13 Cal. However,
Saturday’s match was a completely different story. UCLA (15-5, 7-3
Pac-10) was unable to claim any of the singles matches against the
No. 2 Cardinal (26-1, 10-0). The only match the Bruins were able to
win was a doubles contest in which Katia Roubanova and Elizabeth
Schmidt defeated their opponents 8-6. "We played tough," head coach
Stella Sampras said. "I don’t think we played real well. We won a
tough match against Cal and we really wanted to win that to help
our seed for nationals. "We came into this match wanting to win and
we could win but they just played better than us. We definitely
could have played better." One thing that remains clear is that the
Cardinal played much better than earlier this month when they
defeated the Bruins 6-3 in Palo Alto. "We have been getting better
every week, every match," Stanford head coach Frank Brennan said.
"We get up for this match because this is UCLA and they are a great
team. So we were excited to play and everyone was just peaking at
the right time. "I thought we had good performances out of
everyone. UCLA played tough but we were just a little bit better
and we have sort of been going that way. I don’t know, must be the
coaching." One big difference between this match and the earlier
battle between the two rivals was that this time the Cardinal was
healthy and was able to match up better against UCLA. Two weeks
ago, Stanford was missing No. 2 singles player Anna Kremer. "In
this match they had their full lineup," Sampras said. "Maybe if one
of our players played against a different player from their team,
it could have been a different story." With the conclusion of the
regular season, UCLA is now focused on the NCAA Tournament in May.
"It’s our last match and you can tell it’s been a long season,"
Sampras said. "It wears on your body both mentally and physically,
but we have a couple of weeks to practice and to get us ready for
nationals and we should be fresh." GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
Katia Rubanova’s doubles team scored UCLA’s only point Saturday.
Stanford 8, UCLA 1 UCLA 6, California 3