Tuesday, February 3, 1998
Injury-plagued Bruins to face Pepperdine powerhouse
W.TENNIS UCLA worried by Waves’ unpredictable lineup, expect
tough doubles play
By Jared Hummel
Daily Bruin Contributor
After a mediocre road trip through the Arizona schools last
weekend, the UCLA women’s tennis team will travel up the coast to
Malibu to take on the 10th-ranked Pepperdine Waves today if weather
permits.
The Waves enter play with a 4-1 record; their only tarnish came
against Arizona State, the same team that served the Bruins their
only loss of the season.
With sophomores Amanda Basica and Katia Roubanova still out with
injuries, red-hot sophomore Annica Cooper will once again compete
in the No. 1 spot for the Bruins. Cooper is coming off impressive
victories against Arizona State’s Reka Cseresnves and a straight
sets victory over Arizona’s top performer, Vicky Maes.
UCLA played Pepperdine three times last season and won twice;
the Bruins hold a 30-6 advantage in this matchup’s history.
The Bruins will have to contend with a Pepperdine squad armed
with the 20th, 21st and 53rd ranked singles players in the nation
in senior Zsofia Csapo, sophomore Karoline Borgersen and freshman
Anh Phong Nguyen, respectively.
"With Pepperdine, we never know their lineup, we never know if
they’re going to come out fighting or not – they’re very
unpredictable," head coach Stella Sampras said. "They’re playing
well and our team is going to have to be ready for another tough
match. Just expect another tough battle with a tough team."
Junior Kati Kocsis is slated to compete in the No. 4 spot today
as she has played impressively in her last two singles matches
after returning from injury. Against Arizona State, Kocsis battled
hard but fell to Sun Devil Katy Propstra 6-4, 6-2 but rebounded to
defeat Arizona’s Michelle Gough 6-0, 7-6(7).
* * *
The key injuries finally had their effect on the UCLA women’s
tennis team against Arizona State last weekend.
As a result of their tremendous depth, the Bruins (3-1 overall,
1-1 Pac-10) have been able to win and win decisively against their
first two dual match opponents. However, the tough doubles play of
the Sun Devils sent UCLA reeling for its first loss of the young
season.
"We have some injuries but we went in and I was still confident
that we could pull the match off," UCLA head coach Stella Sampras
said. "It just didn’t go our way. They have very experienced
doubles teams – we haven’t played a lot of doubles. This
combination hurt us a little bit."
UCLA’s injuries have not only hurt their singles game but have
had a significant effect on doubles play as well.
"It’s too bad that our doubles teams haven’t been able to play a
whole lot together because of the injuries we’ve had," Sampras
said. "I think that was the big difference because we were at
three-all after singles and we just needed to win two out of three
doubles, which we didn’t do."
Sophomore Annica Cooper won again in the No. 1 spot as she
defeated Reka Cseresnves 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (4). Freshman Cristina
Popescu was the big story as she played in the No. 5 position and
won easily 6-4, 6-2 after a hamstring pull had sidelined her in her
match against Utah.
In Saturday’s match vs. the University of Arizona it was a
different story for the Bruins as they rebounded to win 5-4.
"I was really proud of the team coming back after the loss
against ASU," Sampras said. "They came back and everybody played
well in their singles."
Sampras elected to pull Popescu out of singles play but placed
her with sophomore Elizabeth Schmidt for doubles resulting in an
8-5 UCLA victory.
"We had Popescu not playing singles but she played No. 1 doubles
and won her match – this was exciting because she’s not 100 percent
out there," Sampras said.
DERRICK KUDO
Annica Cooper, playing No. 1 singles, smashes the ball against
her UNLV opponent.