Memo to the rest of the Pac-10 and the country: the UCLA women’s tennis team is not just beating teams.
It is pummeling them.
Two weeks into the season and it looks as if the No. 12 Bruins have already found their stride, winning their fourth consecutive match to open the season Wednesday with a score of 7-0 over No. 58 UC Irvine.
So far, in those four matches, UCLA has outscored its opponents 20-1, cultivating in Wednesday’s dismantling of the Anteaters, a team that UCLA associate head Coach Rance Brown says is better than what their ranking projects.
“I think Irvine is a lot better than their ranking,” Brown said after Wednesday’s match. “They’ve got a very good team and their top six is as deep as any team in the country, so our girls had to compete today. Getting tough matches underneath our belt will pay dividends for us later.”
But despite what Brown had to say after the match, Wednesday’s victory certainly did not seem to fall under the category of “tough.” The Bruins swept all three doubles matches en route to sweeping all six singles matches, only one of which went to three sets.
Leading the way for the Bruins once again was senior Yasmin Schnack, the No. 5 singles player in the country, who racked up a straight set win over Irvine’s Stephanie Hammel, ranked 109th in the country, 6-1, 6-4.
Schnack has yet to lose in any of the Bruins’ four dual matches so far, something that she claims has helped her build some confidence early in the season.
“Every win definitely helps,” Schnack said. “It’s hard to go out and play well every single time so I get to work on things when I play people I know I’m not going to have that tough of a time against. We haven’t really had any big players to play against.”
Schnack also added that beginning the season 4-0, especially with the National Team Indoor Championship on the horizon, is a monumental confidence builder for the Bruins as a team.
“It’s great that everyone is playing well,” Schnack said. “We’ve been working hard and it just definitely builds our confidence to know that everyone is winning.”
UCLA will host Rice on Friday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center in what will be the Bruins’ last match before the national competition. And barring an upset, UCLA should go into NTIC 5-0 on the season.
But according to Schnack, rankings are not at the top of the priority list for her and her teammates, as the Bruins have been focusing more on their mentality as of late.
“Rankings are important but it’s not really at the top of our list,” Schnack said. “We just want to go out there and play well. One thing we’ve really been focusing on is our attitude, our concentration and effort on the court.”
Brown reiterated Schnack’s comments regarding rankings, but had other reasons as to why he and coach Stella Sampras Webster do not pay too much attention to rankings: the simple reason being that everyone is good.
“Well, we pay attention to it but here on the West Coast and in the Pac-10, it seems like in the last six years, three Pac-10 schools are in the Final Four, at least Elite Eight every year,” Brown said. “So we know we might get beat up and we might take some losses.”
Brown just may be on point with his analysis, seeing as how starting next week at the indoor championships, the road will become progressively tougher for the Bruins. After NTIC, UCLA will have only two more tuneup matches before they begin Pac-10 play against Stanford and Cal, both of whom are ranked in the top 15.
But according to Brown, with the way the Bruins have looked so far, they are ready to compete with anyone, especially on the singles front.
“We’re still looking for our doubles combinations, but God, singles-wise, we got eight strong players,” Brown said. “Andrea (Remynse), we pulled out of the lineup because she wasn’t 100 percent healthy today, and we still came out victorious and all the girls stepped up.
“We’re deep. I think in my twelve years, I don’t think we’ve had eight strong players like this.”