It’s not often the UCLA women’s tennis team gets to
face a ranked opponent outside the Pac-10 before May.
And that’s the reason the No. 11 Bruins are so excited
about facing North Carolina today at the National Indoors in
Wisconsin.
“It’s nice to play people you’ve never played
before,” junior Sarah Gregg said. “I’ve been here
for three years and have never played any of their
girls.”
Head Coach Stella Sampras Webster is also excited to get out of
Southern California and compete against the best in the nation.
“That’s the main reason we come here,” Sampras
Webster said. “We already play the top Pac-10 schools twice,
but here we see where we’re at against teams out of our
conference.”
The Bruins would like to forget about the one match against a
Pac-10 school they have played, a 4-3 loss to USC last Friday.
While a win over the Tar Heels will certainly not erase the
disappointment of losing to the Trojans, it will demonstrate that
the Bruins are part of the nation’s elite.
“This is a great opportunity to redeem ourselves,”
Sampras Webster said. “The great thing about tennis is
there’s always another match.”
The Tar Heels are seeded eighth, making them the favorites on
paper. With three ranked players, the Bruin’s upper half of
the lineup will face a stiff challenge. In the bottom half of the
lineup, the Bruins feel Lauren Fisher’s return will give them
a decisive advantage. The indoor surface should make Fisher’s
transition back into singles easier.
“It helps because I have an aggressive game,” Fisher
said of the faster playing surface. “It’ll give some
more pace on the serve and help me come in to the net.”
Should the Bruins get past the Tar Heels, they will likely face
a familiar foe in Stanford. With top-ranked Florida not entered in
the tournament, apparently because of injuries, the Cardinal is the
top seeded team. However, the Bruins insist they aren’t
looking ahead to future matches.
“We aren’t even talking about Stanford,”
Sampras Webster said.
Besides UCLA and Stanford, USC, Cal and Washington will also
represent the Pac-10 in this 16- team tournament.
“All the teams here are good teams, and the fact that five
are Pac-10 shows how strong our conference is,” Fisher
said.
A Stanford-UCLA second round match will go a long way to proving
this strength.