By Jason Saltoun Ebin
Daily Bruin Contributor
Over the past 10 days, more than 50 of the nation’s
premier college tennis players traveled to Southern California to
compete in the annual Women’s All-American Tennis Tournament
at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades.
The tournament is one of the first of the new season and coaches
use it to evaluate their players’ performances and see how
their teams stack up against the nation’s best before the
heart of team competition begins in January.
UCLA head coach Stella Sampras called upon seniors Zana Zlebnik
and Jennifer Donahue, juniors Catherine Holly and Petya Marinova,
sophomores Michelle Stiefel and Sara Walker, and freshmen Chelsea
Godbey and Lauren Fisher for the tournament.
“We definitely have things to work on and we have to get
better before January,” Sampras said after Walker’s
first-round loss on Saturday.
In singles Walker, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, was the
only Bruin represented in the main draw of the tournament, where
she failed to win her first-round match. She did, however, get a
chance to play two more matches in the consolation round for those
who lost in the first round.
“I was very nervous throughout the tournament. I played
very tight and I played not to lose,” Walker said. “I
know I should have done better. It is frustrating because I know I
can do better.”
Holly was the only Bruin to advance to the qualifying round of
singles play after winning three pre-qualifying matches. She lost
her first- round qualifying match. Fisher won two pre-qualifying
matches before losing, and Marinova won her first pre-qualifying
match before falling in her second match. Zlebnik did not win her
singles match.
In doubles, Walker and Zlebnik won their first round qualifying
match before falling in the second round. The team of Fisher and
Marinova had a bye in the first round of qualifying and then lost
in the second round. However, those two teams were the best Bruin
doubles effort as the teams of Holly and Donahue as well as Stiefel
and Godbey failed to advance past the pre-qualifying rounds.
But the biggest disappointment was Walker’s singles play.
Not only was she the tournament’s No. 2 seed, she was also
pre-season No. 3 in the nation. Throughout the tournament Walker
did not play up to her potential, as a result of her lack of match
play which was due to a back injury and personal reasons.
Walker did have moments of brilliance in all of her matches but
was unable to sustain the high level of play as she was able to do
before her injury. Sampras is not disappointed, however.
“What Sara is going through is just a process that every
tennis player goes through when they have to come back from an
injury,” Sampras said. “We just came into this
tournament with the idea that it was a way of getting her matches.
She has not played a tournament in five months. She is going to
have to find a way to grow and learn from this
experience.”
In part due to poor decision-making on the court and in part
because she seemed afraid at times to be aggressive, Walker
committed many errors that were uncharacteristic of her game last
season. But when she did play aggressively and worked her way into
the net, she missed easy volleys and hesitated a split second too
long in netting or over-hitting some swinging volleys.
“I know now what I need to work on. I need to move the
ball around more and just get used to knowing what to do in tight
situations,” Walker said.
In her sole singles won in consolation play, Walker won the
first set in a tiebreaker and had to come back from being down 4-1
in the second set to win the match. She showed guts in her
comeback, playing masterfully in winning the next five games.
In Walker’s 7-6, 6-2 loss to Duke senior Kathy Sell in the
semi-finals of the consolation bracket, Sell outplayed Walker in
the big points of the first set tiebreaker and then carried that
momentum into the second set. Walker continued to fight in the
second set, but Sell would not concede. Sell also beat Walker in
the finals of the consolation bracket last year.