DAVE HILL/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Freshman
Mariko Fritz-Krockow prepares to return the ball
during the Bruins’ match against Irvine yesterday at the LATC.
By Jason Saltoun Ebin
Daily Bruin Contributor
The No. 6 UCLA women’s tennis team did something Thursday
that the Bruin basketball team couldn’t do earlier in the
season. They started strong against the UC Irvine Anteaters and
never let up.
The Bruins destroyed UCI 6-1 despite the absence of senior Zana
Zlebnik, who learned a few days ago that she has a stress fracture
in her lower back.
“It could be a week or six weeks,” Zlebnik said.
“It is just the beginning of the season and I want to do
everything to get better and give it all I got.”
The Bruins started strong, winning two close doubles matches at
the Nos. 1 and 3 spots and then destroying the Anteaters at the No.
2 spot.
At No. 1 doubles, freshman Lauren Fisher and junior Petya
Marinova threw the Anteater team a few curveballs with big serving,
surprise lobs and aggressive baseline shots. They ended the
16-match win streak of senior Darian Chappell and junior Jonni
Seymor 8-5.
At No. 2 doubles, sophomore Sara Walker and junior Catherine
Hawley, teamed up for the first time this season. They looked
sharp, came out strong and embarrassed the team of senior Natalie
Exon and sophomore Amy Trackino 8-1.
Bruin senior captain Jennifer Donahue and freshman Mariko
Fritz-Krockow were in for a fight at No. 3 against freshmen
Christie Posner and senior Nicole Kabe. Neither team could pull
away and the match went to a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, tied at
4-4, Donahue and Fritz-Krockow finally stepped up their game and
came through, taking the next three points to win 9-8(4).
Singles followed, with the only loss at No. 1. UCLA’s
Walker, after leading 4-1, dropped five of the next six games
before retiring at 6-5 in the first set.
“Sara just was feeling some pain in her stomach and she
couldn’t play through it,” UCLA head coach Stella
Sampras said. “We hope it is nothing serious.”
“It was unfortunate for Sara today,” UCI head coach
Mike Edlers added. “No one likes to see a player retire from
a match.”
The Bruins showed their dominance, winning the next five singles
matches without losing a set.
“Today they did a great job,” assistant coach Jon
Reeves said. “They came together as a team.”
Up next for the Bruins will be the No. 9 Pepperdine Waves
Saturday at 11 a.m. in Malibu.
“Pepperdine is going to be a tough match, everybody needs
to be ready to play,” Sampras said. “It needs to be a
team effort.”