It would have been a week to remember in Westwood.
Just imagine the T-shirts, rallies, banners and special-insert sections that could have been had women’s tennis won title No. 101 on Tuesday. The Bruins would have been the first to win that many titles, making them undoubtedly the top athletic department in the country.
But the Yellow Jackets stung the Bruins with a slim victory Tuesday in Athens, Ga., and the Bruin faithfuls will have to wait patiently for the glorious 101st title.
All kidding aside, the women’s tennis team’s run through the NCAA Tournament made all the hoopla and revelry of last week look a little bit silly.
Only a few days after winning No. 100, UCLA came just a single match away from 101. The Bruins came that close to their first-ever women’s tennis title after a shocking upset of top-seeded Stanford in the semifinal. Instead, two Georgia schools were victorious in the Peach state this week, as Georgia won the men’s crown and Georgia Tech took home the women’s.
The young Bruins were tearing up the NCAA Tournament as the women’s water polo squad claimed UCLA’s 100th championship win in Los Alamitos. They were boarding their plane to Georgia as the UCLA community rallied at Spaulding Field. And as the Daily Bruin was working on a commemorative insert section, the UCLA team was stepping up in the clutch, beating two No. 1 seeds in two days to reach the championship.
The Bruins topped Northwestern, a team they fell to months earlier at the regional in Westwood to advance to the Round of 16 in Athens, Ga. They beat a Florida team in the quarterfinals that had lost just two games during the regular season. And then they pulled the stunner against Stanford on the grand stage of the Final Four, their first win over the Cardinal in nine years.
The number distracted us from women’s tennis’ incredible, unexpected performance. At best, this team was expected to get to Athens for the final rounds, and they wound up playing in the final contest of the NCAA season. It’s not as if this team had the experience of the women’s water polo team, which has won three straight titles. The women’s tennis program is one of a handful at UCLA that has never won an NCAA title.
This remarkable story was overshadowed by an awkwardly timed week celebrating decades of achievement.
It shows us all that we should have known better than to single out and glorify a single victory in an athletic department that is overflowing with championship-caliber teams. No. 100 was great, but it was more a reminder of something Bruin fans see every day than an outstanding achievement that warranted such intense recognition.
In fact, I would say that the last week of UCLA athletics epitomized the Bruins’ historic dominance more than any rally or retrospective. Only a select few programs in the nation experience nine-day periods when two teams reach NCAA Championships. It’s a reminder that the success of UCLA athletics is practically omnipresent ““ there’s always a team preparing for a postseason run and eyeing an NCAA title.
Bruin fans clearly hold a great deal of respect and admiration for the UCLA athletic department. The best way to express this loyalty has nothing to do with 100 or 101 ““ it’s recognizing the strive for excellence that UCLA athletes display every season. And instead of filling Spaulding Field last week, we should have packed LATC for the women’s tennis regional.
E-mail Allen at sallen@media.ucla.edu if you had already pre-ordered a No. 101 shirt.