Amid the uncertainty and inconsistency that have characterized
the UCLA women’s tennis season thus far, coach Stella Sampras
Webster can take solace in this:
The Bruins will emerge from this weekend’s matches against
Arizona State and Arizona with an unblemished Pac-10 record.
Even if they lose.
Since many Pac-10 schools traditionally schedule two matches
against each other in the course of a season, the first one does
not count toward conference standings. But this does not change the
Bruins’ attitude toward the match in the least bit.
“It counts just as much for the national rankings, so we
approach it just the same,” coach Stella Sampras Webster
said.
Many players appreciate the opportunity to play against Pac-10
schools more than once in a season.
“It’s good to get to see them now so when we play
them again in Arizona we’ll know what to expect,”
sophomore Laura Gordon said.
With the Pac-10 accounting for six of the top 20 teams in the
nation, it is possible that some of them could meet as many as four
times in a single year ““ twice during regular season
matchups, once at the National Indoor Championships, and again at
the NCAA Championships. Although this scheduling does not allow the
conference many chances to test itself against other regions, the
teams know that, come May, they will be better off than the rest of
the country.
“We go to Madison (for the National Indoors) to play the
good non-conference teams,” Sampras Webster said. “We
get enough competition within our conference so we don’t need
to travel otherwise.”
Today’s match against the No. 18 Sun Devils, who split the
season series with the Bruins last year, is expected to be more of
a challenge than Saturday’s match against the Wildcats.
“Arizona State is just real deep,” Sampras Webster
said. “The level of their players is all close. Arizona has
talent at the top, but is not as deep.”
Depth has not been the major concern for the Bruins thus far
this season. Although redshirt junior Lauren Fisher has missed most
of the singles matches because of a nagging elbow injury, Sampras
Webster has never worried about putting Gordon in at the No. 6
position.
“When (Fisher) can’t play, it’s not going to
hurt us,” said Sampras Webster, who will continue to evaluate
Fisher’s recovery on a match-by-match-basis.
“We will weigh how her elbow is after doubles. We
don’t want to play her in singles right now if it means
she’d have to miss the next day in doubles.”
Fisher, an All-American doubles player two years ago, has been
expected to strengthen a doubles lineup that struggled most of last
season. Although she and sophomore Jackie Carleton earned a No. 3
ranking entering this season, the pair went 2-3 in dual matches
this year and have since been split up.
Sampras Webster hopes this weekend will give her a better
indication as to how her new teams play together, particularly
Fisher and freshman Daniela Bercek.
“It’s another good test to see how the chemistry
builds in each team,” she said.