The Pac-10 Women’s Championship singles and doubles draws may have been the biggest events of the four-day tournament in Ojai this past weekend, but the less well-known members of the UCLA women’s tennis team stole the spotlight by sweeping the invitational draws of the event.
Bruin freshman Carling Seguso defeated five other Pac-10 players without dropping a set on her way to the Women’s Invitational Singles Championship. UCLA also won the Women’s Invitational doubles draw, with sophomore Maya Johansson and senior Anna-Viktoria Lind ““ who had never played a match as a doubles team prior to the tournament.
“I’m finally starting to prove myself more and I feel like I’ve really improved since I’ve been here in terms of my drive,” Seguso said. “I (was) representing UCLA, but I actually won for myself.”
Seguso defeated California senior Marian Ravelojaona in the final in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5, capping off a dominant weekend for the freshman.
Bruin junior Stephanie Wetmore also managed to reach the semifinals of the Invitational Singles but lost to Ravelojaona, ending the possibility for an all-UCLA final between her and Seguso.
UCLA coach Stella Sampras Webster decided to experiment with a completely new doubles team in the Invitational doubles draw, pairing Lind and Johansson together for the first time ever.
The experiment worked to near-perfection, as Johansson and Lind stormed through their three matches, winning both of their final two matches 8-2, and defeating Stanford’s Isamarie Perez and Jennifer Yen in the final.
“It was great to see (Johansson and Lind) compete together and play well together,” Sampras Webster said. “The chemistry was great and they complemented each other very well.”
Sampras Webster also said that it was encouraging to see the bottom parts of UCLA’s dual match lineup fare well.
“It’s huge,” she said. “It gives us so much depth.”
The Bruins who competed in the Pac-10 Championship Singles and Doubles draws did not enjoy the same sort of success as their teammates did in the Invitationals.
Sophomore Andrea Remynse was one of two Bruins to be eliminated in the first round, as a result of drawing USC senior Amanda Fink, the tournaments eventual champion.
Yasmin Schnack, who usually plays at the No. 1 position for UCLA, was upset in a tight quarterfinal match by California sophomore Marina Cossou, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.
Freshman Nina Pantic triumphed in the first round only to be knocked out in the round of 16 by California senior Bojana Bobusic, 6-4, 6-2.
“I don’t think it was a bad tournament,” Sampras Webster said. “If they did lose, it was because their opponent was just better.”
Schnack and Remynse seemed to be more comfortable as a team in the main doubles draw, but Schnack suffered a strained quadriceps in the quarterfinal match against Stanford’s Carolyn McVeigh and Jessica Nguyen and the team had to withdraw.
Pantic and senior partner Ashley Joelson pulled off the upset in their first round match by toppling California’s team of Cossou and senior Claire Ilcinkas but could not repeat their magic in the quarterfinals, losing to Arizona State’s sister tandem of Nadia and Laila Abdala.
Wetmore and Seguso managed to reach the second round but were handled by USC’s eventual champion team of Fink and junior Gabriela Niculescu.
“I was pleased to see our doubles do pretty well,” Sampras Webster said. “Nina and Ashley are playing better tennis and that gives us more depth with our doubles. Our third doubles team can hopefully go in and beat any third doubles team in the country. Yasmin and Andrea were playing great until Yasmin had to pull out. Stephanie and Carling played well and had chances to do well.”
BRUINS TO HOST REGIONALS: The No. 11 Bruins (17-6) were one of 16 teams selected to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The matches will take place at the Los Angeles Tennis Center May 8-10. The Bruins will face Boston University (15-5) in the first round. Also competing at the LATC are UNLV (20-7) and Arizona State (11-8) in the other first-round matchup.