In the final match before the National Indoor Championships, the UCLA women’s team will have one last opportunity to address its weaknesses before facing some of the top teams in the country.
No. 7 UCLA hosts Cal Poly today at the Los Angeles Tennis Center, and the Bruins hope to make some last-second adjustments.
One weakness has stood out in particular this season: doubles play. UCLA coach Stella Sampras Webster made a few changes to the doubles pairs in the team’s win against UC Irvine on Wednesday in an attempt to find teams with better chemistry and success. The doubles point has become so important to UCLA’s success that the team has focused on it much more than usual.
“In the past, I don’t think we’ve focused as much on doubles,” Sampras Webster said. “We’ve practiced it maybe twice a week, but now we’re practicing doubles almost every day. Hopefully they can develop those skills so it can be second nature to them when they do play.”
Sampras Webster may not be done with her shuffling, as the team has continued to mix things up in practices preceding today’s match.
“We’re working on our dynamic between the girls,” senior Maya Johansson said. “We’re just mixing up all the players, working on being aggressive at the net, and just some basic doubles practice.”
Though UCLA saw some much needed improvement in doubles play against UCI, it has not had the opportunity to play against an elite team since its defeat against top-ranked Stanford.
The Bruins might not find that opportunity against the Mustangs (5-2), a team UCLA handily defeated 6-1 just a season ago. The Bruins will look for a blowout as an indicator of improvement.
“We want to go into the doubles really strong and not have it be a close match against Cal Poly,” junior McCall Jones said. “If it’s close against Cal Poly, we could possibly end up losing against the top teams in the Indoors.”
The Bruins will also look to continue their strong singles play, whatever the look of the lineup may be. The singles order underwent a slight shake-up against UCI when Jones, who has played in the No. 1 spot this season, was sidelined with an illness. The Bruins still managed to claim all six singles points, a testament to the depth of the squad.
“The good thing about playing with such a great team is that we have so many great players,” Jones said. “If one person is out like I was, we have other girls that are able to step up.”
The Bruins believe they have the talent to do well against the top teams, and one of the tests will be to see if they can maintain that high level of play against all teams.
“Each player is just making sure if they’re fit and ready to play,” Sampras Webster said. “Everyone’s playing well, and we want to keep improving in all matches.”
While the Mustangs may not compare to the Bruins on paper, UCLA is taking this match as a final learning opportunity before its toughest challenge awaits.
“We don’t want to waste time on the court,” Johansson said. “We want to focus on the game and figure some things out. We always want to work on something.”