Don’t dare utter the phrase “rebuilding year”
around the pre-season No. 7 UCLA women’s tennis team.
Never mind the fact that three of their top six players,
including All-American Megan Bradley, are no longer with the team.
They have been replaced by a freshman class that can rival any in
the country in depth and skill.
“I think this team has a lot of potential,” said
head coach Stella Sampras Webster, who is entering her seventh year
at the helm for the Bruins. “It’s exciting because we
don’t know how good this team can be yet because they are so
new. It’s going to be exciting to see them improve and
progress throughout the season.”
The freshman class is led by Jackie Carleton, a three-time state
singles champion at Jenkintown High School in Pennsylvania. She
will start the season at the No. 2 singles position. She will be
joined in the top six by fellow freshmen Susi Wild and Feriel
Esseghir. Esseghir is currently out with an injury but is expected
to rejoin the team next week.
The Bruins will be led by team captain and three-time
All-American Sara Walker. Walker, the only senior on the team,
enters the season ranked No. 6 in the ITA rankings and will play
No. 1 singles for UCLA.
On a team loaded with talent but low on experience, Walker will
be relied upon heavily for leadership on and off the court.
“(Walker) is going to serve as a role model for us,”
sophomore Anya Loncaric said. “She does a good job of leading
by example.”
In past years, UCLA has had to rely heavily on the strength of
their top two or three singles players, but this year the Bruins
will be leaning largely on their depth.
Returning players Sarah Gregg and Lauren Fisher are expected to
play in the top six, and Wild, Esseghir, Loncaric and freshman
Laura Gordon will also be competing for spots.
“I don’t know who is going to play No. 6 for
us,” Sampras Webster said. “But they will have to fight
for that spot.”
The parity that the Bruins have among their third- through
eighth-ranked players will give them the opportunity to try several
different lineup combinations.
“A lot of our players can play at the same level,”
said Fisher, who is currently recovering from elbow surgery and
will likely not be available until late February.
“That’s great because we can swap players around
depending on who is playing well at that time in the
year.”
The Bruins have yet to set their doubles teams, but they have
tried a variety of combinations and Sampras Webster is still in the
process of determining what players work best together. Fisher and
Esseghir are both expected to play doubles, so their absence has
made it difficult to establish permanent pairings.
“Once Fisher and Feriel come back, it will totally change
things,” Sampras Webster said. “Our doubles are only
going to get better.”
UCLA has three preseason tune-ups, starting today with a home
match against Long Beach State at Los Angeles Tennis Center. Once
the Pac-10 season starts, the Bruins will be challenged every time
they step on the court. The Pac-10 is the strongest conference in
the nation, featuring seven teams ranked in the top 25, including
defending champion No. 1 Stanford.
“It is very evident that every team and every player is
strong,” Sampras Webster said. “There are no weak teams
in the Pac-10 so we are going to get a lot of great competition.
There is a lot more parity this year than I’ve ever seen
before.”
The Bruins see the constant barrage of talent that they will
face within their own conference as something that will aid them in
their pursuit of a national championship.
“Once we get to the NCAA championships, we are going to
see very good teams,” Fisher said. “(In this
conference) we will be playing them all year long. It’s
excellent that so many teams in our section are so good.”
This new-look UCLA team is looking to improve upon its last
campaign that ended with a 4-2 loss to Georgia in the quarterfinals
of the NCAA tournament.
“It’s not a rebuilding year for us,” Sampras
Webster said. “We are just as strong and maybe even stronger
than we were last year.
“We’ve got so much depth, and if we can keep
everyone healthy, we should be able to do just as well and,
hopefully, better.”