By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Contributor
Everything appears to be on the side of the No. 9 UCLA
women’s tennis team as it hosts the NCAA Regionals Friday and
Saturday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
Except for history.
Last season, the Bruins also hosted an NCAA Regional at the LATC
and blew by Western Michigan in the first round, 5-0, only to see
their season end unexpectedly with a shocking 5-2 upset at the
hands of South Alabama.
But this time the Bruins (14-8, 6-2 Pac-10) say they will be
ready, and they seem to be. For starters, the Bruins weathered a
plague of injuries throughout the season to finish in a tie for
second place in the Pac-10, arguably the strongest conference in
the nation.
Friday they face off against the Terriers of Boston University
(13-5), who are making just their second-ever appearance in the
NCAA Championships.
Furthering UCLA’s position as the prohibited favorite in
this regional is freshman Sara Walker, who is ranked second
nationally by the ITA in singles. Walker was named Wednesday to the
All-Pac-10 first team and named Pac-10 Freshman of the Year after
taking home the conference’s singles title in the Pac-10
Championships two weekends ago in Ojai.
Senior Annica Cooper and freshman Abigail Spears were also
honored. Cooper was named to the All-Pac-10 second team and Spears
was named honorable mention.
Naturally, though, the Bruins won’t be taking Boston
University, or any other opponent, lightly.
The Terriers reached the regional after winning the America East
conference for the seventh consecutive year and the 11th time in
the past 12 seasons. They beat Delaware in the conference
championship 6-0, capping a dominating performance in the
tournament in which the Terriers did not even lose a set.
UCLA senior Elizabeth Schmidt said focus and preparation will
help the Bruins avoid another early exit from the regionals.
“I think we’re a lot more mentally prepared this
year,” she said. “We know what to expect. Last year we
didn’t know what to expect.”
Terriers head coach Lesley Sheehan said that the excitement of
reaching the NCAAs this year takes on a different form than it did
last year, when the Terriers saw their first postseason NCAA action
and lost to Pepperdine, 6-0.
“Our goal this entire year was to win the conference
title, return to NCAAs and then win some matches,” Sheehan
told Boston University’s GoBU.com Web site. “We know
what to expect this year, and we will be focused on doing more than
just showing up.”
Still, the Bruins are heavily favored to win Friday’s
match. Although the two teams do not share any common opponents,
the Terriers enter the contest without a nationally ranked singles
player or doubles team, while the Bruins wield considerable
firepower with four singles players and all three doubles teams
ranked nationally.
In addition, UCLA is one of only two schools (along with
Stanford) to make every NCAA Tournament since its inception in
1982.
In the other half of the regional, No. 25 Washington (12-9, 3-5
Pac-10) takes on no. 37 Georgia Tech (13-7) at 10 a.m.
“We know Washington. We don’t know Georgia Tech or
Boston, but we know Washington,” UCLA head coach Stella
Sampras said of the Huskies, who the Bruins beat 7-2 on April 14 at
the LATC. “I think having beaten them already this year, our
players are going in pretty confident.”
On Saturday at 3 p.m., the regional winner will be crowned and
earn a ticket to Malibu for the NCAA Championships Round of 16.