Tuesday, 5/20/97 Despite team’s loss, individual Bruins fare
well in NCAA play W. TENNIS: Three of four players advance to 2nd
round; doubles teams to begin matches today
By Christie DeBeau Daily Bruin Contributor PALO ALTO, Calif. —
Although the team season ended with a quarterfinal loss to Texas on
Friday, four members of the UCLA women’s tennis team returned to
the court Monday in Palo Alto. Kati Kocsis, Annica Cooper,
Elizabeth Schmidt and Katia Roubanova all competed in the first
round of the 64-player NCAA women’s singles championship, with
Kocsis, Roubanova and Cooper all advancing to the second round.
Leading the way for the Bruins was sophomore Kocsis, who defeated
Maria Pavlidou of Arkansas, 6-3, 6-4. The Bruins’ top player and
11th-ranked player in the country upped her overall record to 22-16
and earned the right to face No. 17 Isabela Petrov of Pepperdine in
a second-round matchup at 11 a.m. today. It will be the fourth
meeting of the year between the two competitors. Petrov has emerged
victorious all three times, most recently in a three-set match
March 29. In the same bracket as Kocsis, freshman Cooper posted a
victory over Vanderbilt’s Kim Schiff, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Cooper, the
Bruins’ leader in victories with a 32-12 record and ranked 35th
nationally, will battle Romana Tedjakusuma of Nicholls State in her
second-round match today. Roubanova became the third Bruin to
advance when she defeated Olga Novikova of Penn State, 6-4, 6-3.
Roubanova will face Duke’s Wendy Fix, an upset winner over
seventh-seeded Dawn Buth of Florida, today. Freshman Schmidt was
the lone UCLA player to lose when she fell to Stanford’s Julie
Scott, 6-1, 6-4. Schmidt ended the year with an overall record of
27-17, and is ranked No. 36 in the nation. * * * The doubles
championship begins today with two teams from UCLA competing.
Roubanova and Schmidt will play Duke’s Luanne Spadea and Karen
O’Sullivan. Roubanova and Schmidt are ranked No. 16 in doubles
play. Cooper and Kocsis are the Bruins’ second team and will play
the fourth-ranked team of Lauren Nikolaus and Johanna Sones from
William and Mary. Cooper and Schmidt are ranked No. 26 in the
International Tennis Association national rankings. UCLA Sports
Info Freshman Annica Cooper