After playing on the road at top speed, the No. 3 UCLA women’s tennis team will be doing some serious downshifting as they return home this week.
The Bruins suffered their first defeats of the 2009 season at the National Team Indoor Championships in Madison, Wisconsin this past weekend. The Bruins fell to No. 6 Georgia and No. 7 Georgia Tech, the highest ranked opponents they have faced so far.
However, it doesn’t take long to realize that the Bruins’ next opponent, Loyola Marymount, isn’t in that class. In fact, the unranked Lions haven’t even won a match this season. The two teams clash today at 1:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
The Bruins (5-2) are looking to avenge the blemishes on their record, but the busy weekend has affected coach Stella Sampras Webster’s plans for today. The team took Tuesday off to recuperate after their first real road trip of the season, and Sampras Webster plans to utilize the match against the Lions (0-4) as a testing ground for the team’s less experienced players.
“The match against LMU will give us a chance to experiment,” she said. “(It’s) a good match to come back to playing outdoors and to just get back into the routine of things.
“I think we can use this to get some players more matches, to rest some other players, and to give some of our lower-half players opportunities to play.”
One of the inexperienced players Sampras Webster is sure to use is freshman Jordan Dockendorf, who seldom played at the beginning of the season but saw expanded playing time during the Team Indoors, especially in doubles, where she partnered with junior Stephanie Wetmore for two of the Bruins’ three matches. However, the pairing yielded mixed results, and Sampras Webster admits that the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams still require a bit of tinkering.
The long journey to Wisconsin and back could have had adverse effects on the Bruins’ health and fitness, but the players appear ready to play, if not a little winded. The team did not get back to Los Angeles until 10 p.m. on Monday.
“(It) was a really tough, long trip, so luckily everyone got back healthy, but I’m sure everyone’s pretty tired,” Sampras Webster said. “I’m sure there are some players that are quite tired and would love another day off, but we’ve got a match.”
The Bruins have a history of dominance over the Lions: UCLA has won the teams’ annual meetings by an aggregate total of 85-2 dating back to the 1996-97 season. UCLA will look to continue that dominance today.