The Bruins are squeezing in one more tournament before the ITA championships.
UCLA women’s tennis will send three players – seniors Gabby Andrews, Ayan Broomfield and freshman Katie LaFrance – to Jack Kramer Collegiate Tournament, which begins Thursday.
“We have to be very careful with our competitions so we don’t go over our dates,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “So some that didn’t play a lot of singles in the fall are going to be playing this weekend.”
The NCAA rule limits all collegiate players each play on 25 dates. UCLA currently has 21 scheduled duals for the spring, limiting each Bruin to just four tournaments in the fall.
Andrews and Broomfield have each played in one singles tournament during the fall season, so Sampras Webster said she gave them the choice of whether or not to play this weekend.
They wanted extra practice.
“Too bad the whole team can’t play,” Andrews said. “But it’ll be a good tournament for us to play in so that we can play against different players because we get so used to playing with ourselves.”
Broomfield said the tournament will be an opportunity to work on diversifying her game.
“We’ve been working on variety – being able to do different things so that we can play different people and still be effective,” Broomfield said. “We want to have variation and not just play one style.”
Andrews – who is only playing in her second singles tournament this fall – said her goals this weekend for herself is to be able to play with consistent energy when playing multiple matches a day.
“I’m trying to maintain good energy throughout,” Andrews said. “Meaning I’m going to be playing two to three matches a day, so just trying to carry out the energy throughout the whole day. My energy tends to drop off a little in the afternoon, so just keeping my energy level up.”
The Bruins who aren’t playing in the Kramer tournament and have qualified for the ITA championships will be preparing for next weekend.
“I’m excited for the ones that are going to be playing, and others that are not playing are going to be preparing the ITA championships,” Sampras Webster said.