Thursday, February 19, 1998
Team hopes injuries won’t keep players from victory
W. TENNIS: UCLA expects indoor gameplay to be an advantage in
tournament
By Jared Hummel
Daily Bruin Contributor
Fresh off the injury list and with only one match each under
their belts, sophomore Katia Roubanova and freshman Cristina
Popescu will receive a baptism by fire today.
Those two will join forces with the rest of the UCLA women’s
tennis team as they take on the nation’s best at the USA/ITA
Women’s National Indoor Team Tennis Championship.
The Bruins will square off against No. 11 William and Mary
University today at 9 a.m.
This tournament features 16 schools out of the Rolex Collegiate
Tennis Ranking’s top.
Eight matches will be played daily, culminating with the two
teams with the best records playing each other in the championship
finals on Feb. 22.
UCLA head coach Stella Sampras is confident about her team’s
chances going into this highly competitive tournament, partially
because the matches are all played indoors.
"Our team plays well indoors," Sampras said.
"We have a lot of big hitters, big serves and that (type of)
game plays well indoors. I think we’ll do really well."
The Bruins have yet to win a title in this tournament, although
they reached the finals in 1990 and 1995.
If UCLA can get past William and Mary today they will most
likely play No. 1 seeded Duke in tomorrow’s matchup.
Duke enters the tournament ranked No. 3 in the nation but is
undefeated in dual match play, including an impressive 8-1 victory
over Wisconsin, the tournament’s host.
The Bruin’s No. 1 player, sophomore Annica Cooper, with her
perfect 6-0 record in dual match play, has earned herself a No. 26
ranking. She will take on William and Mary senior and No. 12-ranked
Lauren Nikolaus.
This tournament should be a good test of this UCLA team’s
talent.
By Sunday evening Coach Sampras should know where her team’s
strengths and weaknesses lie. As a result, she will know what needs
to be worked on in the coming weeks.