Monday, March 2, 1998
Rearranged schedule, lineup brings No. 2 Bruins win, loss
W.TENNIS: UCLA falters vs. Pepperdine, regains footing by
trouncing No. 37 UNLV
By Jared Hummel
Daily Bruin Contributor
The recent struggle continues for the No. 2 UCLA women’s tennis
team.
The Bruins (7-4 overall, 2-1 Pac-10) traveled to Malibu on
Friday to take on No. 10 Pepperdine in a game rescheduled from Feb.
3.
UCLA head coach Stella Sampras elected to switch up the lineup
in hopes of ending the Bruins’ recent slide.
She dropped junior Kati Kocsis from the No. 3 position to No. 5.
Senior Kelly Rudolph and freshman Cristina Popescu both moved up
one notch to Nos. 3 and 4 respectively, and junior Brandi
Freudenberg moved up one slot to No. 6.
The result: another loss.
Despite sophomore Annica Cooper’s continued torrid play, winning
her 10th singles match out of 11 tries, the Bruins dropped the dual
match by a score of 6-3.
UCLA lost four of its six singles matches and two of its three
doubles.
Despite their woes of late, the Bruins have been seeing good
tennis play from Popescu who, having recently been released from
the injury list after a muscle pull, won both her singles matches
and both of her doubles.
Popescu now has a dual match singles record of 6-1.
However, all was not lost for UCLA as it managed to salvage its
weekend on Saturday afternoon by defeating the No. 37 Lady Rebels
from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
UNLV entered play with a 3-2 record after dropping both matches
to the Arizona schools last week.
Friday’s loss to the Waves prompted Sampras to mix up the lineup
once again.
Sampras rewarded Popescu for her recent stellar play by moving
her up to the No. 2 position from No. 4.
Popescu showed that she was up to the challenge by defeating
sophomore Veronica Goude 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Cooper defeated Kocsis’ sister Susie 6-3, 6-4 while struggling
sophomore Elizabeth Schmidt fell in the longest match of the day
6-2, 4-6, 7-5 at the No. 3 slot.
Doubles play was impressive for the Bruins as they won two of
three when Rudolph and Cooper combined to hammer Goude and freshman
Britta Gabl 8-0, and Brandi Freudenberg and Popescu defeated the
duo of sophomore Lisa Annebro and freshman Marcella Valkenhoff
8-2.
The Bruins’ only doubles loss came in the No. 1 position when
sophomore Katia Roubanova and Schmidt were beaten 9-7.
Despite the loss, UCLA’s No. 1 doubles player, Roubanova,
continues to heal from her foot injury which had kept her out for
the first six dual matches of the season.
The Bruins will return to action on Wednesday against Boise
State at the Los Angeles Tennis Center and again on Friday at
USC.