Daily Bruin File Photo Sara Walker, who
lost in the semifinals at the ITA regional championships this
weekend, eyes the ball and prepares to swing in a match last
season.
By Jason Saltoun Ebin
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA women’s tennis team competed in the 2000 ITA
Southern California Regional Championships at UC Irvine from Nov.
9-13. The Regional Championship tournament was the final chance for
the Bruins to automatically earn a spot into the Rolex National
Indoor tournament in February in Dallas, Texas. The winner and
finalist of each regional tournament earns a spot in the national
tournament.
“This tournament is an opportunity to get someone to
qualify for the national indoor tournament in Dallas,” said
UCLA head coach Stella Sampras. “It is also an opportunity
for our players to get matches and play players from our region. We
have been working really hard in practice and I expect to see
improvement.”
The Bruins failed to earn an automatic spot into the national
tournament when sophomore Sara Walker, the tournament’s No. 1
seed and the nation’s No. 3 ranked player, lost in the
semifinals to Jewel Peterson of USC 3-6, 7-6, 7-6. Peterson, 26th
in the nation, was the tournament’s No. 3 seed. She went on
to win the tournament, defeating unseeded but nationally ranked No.
63 Michelle Gough of Arizona 6-4,
6-3.
“The match was just a grind, I played well and she played
well,” Walker said. “I had two match points in the
second set and then I fought off seven set points. The match was
three-and-a-half hours. I haven’t had a match like that in a
long time and I needed it. I played a lot better then in our first
tournament.”
Walker may still earn a spot into the National Rolex tournament
based on her No. 3 national ranking.
Freshman Lauren Fisher and junior Catherine Hawley both advanced
to the round of 16. Hawley, in her second round match, defeated the
tournament’s No. 2 seed and the nation’s No. 13 player,
Karin Palme of Arizona State, 7-6, 0-6, 7-6.
“I felt good about the win, I felt like I started to
incorporate some of the things I have been working on in practice
into my match play,” Hawley said. “I executed my
volleys well and was able to be aggressive with my ground strokes
and control the points with my forehand.”
In only her second tournament as a Bruin, Fisher let her nerves
disappear and let her game speak for itself.
Fisher defeated Bernadette Bayani of USC 6-4, 7-5 in the first
round and then defeated Andrea Lord of Loyola Marymount 4-6, 6-1,
6-1 in the second round. Fisher fell to Paola Palencia of
Pepperdine 6-4, 6-4.
“The first tournament I played I was so nervous, I could
barely hold my racket,” Fisher said. “But this
tournament I was not nervous at all. I felt a lot better and I was
really comfortable playing.”
Junior Petya Marinova won her first round match against Tereza
Simonyan of CSU Northridge 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Marinova fell in the
second round to Cindy Sureephong of Arizona State 7-5, 6-3.
Senior Zana Zlebnik fell in the first round 6-1, 7-5 to Laresa
Marina from Arizona. Bruins senior Jennifer Donahue, sophomore
Michelle Stiefel and freshman Chelsea Godbey all failed to advance
through the qualifying rounds into the main draw. Donahue and
Godbey did, however, win their first-round qualifying matches.
The doubles team of Walker and Zlebnik advanced to the
quarterfinals before losing to the nation’s No. 1 doubles
team and eventual tournament champions, Ipek Senoglu and Paolo
Palencia from Pepperdine. Senoglu and Palencia defeated Walker and
Zlebnik 8-3.
In their first round doubles match, the team of Marinova and
Fisher faced off against the No. 3 doubles team in the nation,
Michelle Gough and Lindsay Blau from Arizona. Marinova and Fisher
fell 8-5.
In qualifying doubles play, the teams of Hawley and Donahue, as
well as Stiefel and Godbey, both won their first-round matches
before losing in the second round of qualifying.
“I felt like they performed much better then in our first
tournament at the All American. I saw improvement,” Sampras
said. “We need to continue to work hard so that we can get
better as a team. We need to be match tough.”
The Bruins have a break until Jan. 12 when the Pac-10 indoor
competition starts in Seattle, Washington.