It won’t affect the Gauntlet, change the conference
standings, or determine who wins the season series.
But that doesn’t matter in the least bit.
Those factors are all irrelevant when the USC and UCLA
women’s tennis teams face off today in the Round of 16 at the
NCAA tournament in Athens, Ga.
During conference play, this match might be one of the
year’s most notable accomplishments or one of the most
devastating blows. But when the teams meet today, it will define
their seasons.
Win or lose, neither team can shy away from that fact. Nothing
that came before matters and anything that happens afterward seems
trivial in comparison. Both teams fully understand the magnitude of
today’s match.
“This is the only match that counts,” junior Lauren
Fisher said. “Everything in the season just leads up to
it.”
Ignoring regular season outcomes is something UCLA
shouldn’t mind doing at all today. The Trojans swept them in
their season series, picking up a narrow 4-3 victory at the end of
January and then a 5-2 win in early March. But those matches are
ancient history as far as the Bruins are concerned.
“Last time we didn’t have (Daniela Bercek),”
coach Stella Sampras Webster said of her top player. “The
first time was really early in the season. We’re playing our
best tennis now.”
But the ninth-seeded Bruins (18-7) haven’t been caged up
in a wooden horse. They know that playing their best tennis
won’t catch the eighth-seeded Women of Troy (18-6)
off-guard.
USC has obviously seen that since the March setback, the
Bruins’ only losses have come at the hand of undefeated
Stanford. With their roster finally healthy and their games finely
tuned, there will be only one explanation left if the Bruins falter
a third time against the Trojans.
“We get to prove we are the better team,” Sampras
Webster said. “If we lose, then we aren’t.”
It’s that simple. Two past losses are completely
eradicated with one win today. Another loss just proves what the
regular season seemed to indicate.
Although the past may not be on the Bruins’ side as far as
this season is concerned, the team can quickly point to tournament
history that favors them. Last season, UCLA avenged a 6-1 loss to
Washington in conference play with a 4-3 win in the Round of
16.
Just one year earlier, UCLA knocked off the Trojans 4-1 in the
same round despite losing to them in March. But since that win two
years ago, the Trojans have rattled off four in a row against the
Bruins. To Sampras Webster, it can be a moot point.
“When I look back at my years as a player, I don’t
necessarily remember what happened during the regular
season,” the Bruin alum said. “But I always remember
how we did at the NCAAs.”
It would be hard to forget a win today. But a loss will be just
as hard to ignore when the Bruins look back at their season.
Last year’s mediocre fifth-place conference finish was
overlooked after that single win over Washington in the tournament.
Their improved third-place finish this year may not be an
accomplishment unless they beat the team that finished one spot
ahead of them.
“It helps determine whether we’ve overachieved or
underachieved,” Sampras Webster said. “If we lose in
the Round of 16, then I’d say we didn’t have as good a
year as last year.”
Her attitude reflects how much emphasis is placed on the
tournament and certainly on beating the Trojans today. As a
four-time All-American at UCLA from 1988-1991, the Southern
California native is well-acquainted with the meaning of the
cross-town rivalry.
Explaining its importance to her teams that feature largely
out-of-state or international players has become a part of the
job.
“I try to get them to understand what the rivalry is like,
the history behind it,” Sampras Webster said.
In spite of any hatred that may be thought to exist between the
two schools because of the history, it doesn’t extend to the
players themselves.
“The rivalry is there because of the name, but we like
them off the court,” Fisher said of her Trojan
counterparts.
Personal animosity is hardly a prerequisite for any rivalry
match-up. In the next week or so, both seasons will be over and the
players can cast aside the rivalry. But today, they’re on the
court, and everything’s at stake.