Monday, April 20, 1998
Bruins crumble under Cardinal, Cal onslaught
W. TENNIS: UCLA starts strong but wears down under California
teams
By Rocky Salmon
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The UCLA women’s tennis team almost came away with a big upset
when they traveled to the Bay area last weekend.
In fact the Bruins almost swept the No. 1 team in the
country.
Playing against No. 1-ranked Stanford, the Bruins took the
Cardinal to the brink before falling 5-4.
Fittingly, it was UCLA who delivered their only loss of the
season to the Cardinal with a 5-4 victory to begin April.
However, this match would have more drama than "E.R." as the
deciding match would come down to the last doubles match where the
Bruins would come up short.
The deciding match would be the No. 3 doubles, where UCLA’s Kati
Kocsis and Brandi Freudenberg would battle with Stanford’s Jennifer
Heiser and Sarah Pestieau.
Tied at 6-6 through 12 games, the Bruins finally caved under the
Cardinal pressure and would give up two unanswered points to give
Stanford a 8-6 victory and improve their record to 24-1.
UCLA would fall to 14-10 and 8-5 in conference play.
Creating the close finish was strong play by Annica Cooper, who
defeated Anne Kremer 6-4, 7-5 in the No. 1 slot. Elizabeth Schmidt
and Kati Kocsis would also win in singles, giving the Bruins
momentum heading into doubles, where UCLA would win the No. 1
doubles. Katia Roubanova and Annica Cooper defeated Anne Kremer and
Teryn Ashley, 8-6, as both Cardinal players lost for the second
time that day.
* * *
The Bruins would take the court once more over the weekend,
losing to Cal, 7-2.
No. 16 UCLA could not defeat No. 10 Cal, as the Golden Bears had
their way with the worn-out Bruins.
UCLA’s only wins would be courtesy of No. 1 singles Christina
Popescu and a win in doubles play.