NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Junior Petya
Marinova runs for the ball during a match against Fresno
State on Friday. Fresno State 5 UCLA 2
by Hannah Gordon
Daily Bruin Contributor
Without their head coach and two of their top players, a
weakened No. 18 UCLA women’s tennis team lost to No. 33
Fresno State, 5-2. The team has struggled in the past few weeks
while getting used to playing without No. 1 sophomore Sara Walker
and No. 3 senior Zana Zlebnik.
“Everyone is struggling with their game,” junior
Petya Marinova said. “It was a big surprise when Sara
didn’t come to National Indoors and it has taken a week to
get used to.”
The team did not find out until the morning they left for
Wisconsin that Walker would not be with them. They went on to lose
three matches at the National Indoors, losses that have demoralized
the team.
“The girls are being asked a lot of right now. It’s
hard to move up two spots,” assistant coach Jon Reeves
said.
The team continued to struggle as Fresno State swept the doubles
point Friday. At the No. 1 spot, Simone Jardim and Kim Niggemeyer
of Fresno State defeated freshman Lauren Fisher and Marinova,
9-7.
“On doubles, none of us played that good, but we fought
hard,” Marinova said.
Fresno’s Liesl Fichtbauer and Courtney Jantz beat senior
Jennifer Donahue and freshman Mariko Fritz-Krockow, 8-3.
“Yesterday things weren’t really clicking, it was
more like two individuals playing than a team,” Fritz-Krockow
said. “We just need to get used to playing
together.”
At the No. 3 spot, Kelly Ramirez and Chantel Wiggins defeated
UCLA’s freshman Chelsea Godbey and junior Catherine Hawley,
8-2.
In singles, Fresno State took 4 of the 6 matches. Despite its
lower ranking, Fresno has two nationally ranked players whereas
UCLA only has one now. Niggemeyer, No. 37, beat UCLA’s
Catherine Hawley (97) 6-1, 6-3 at the No. 1 spot.
At the No. 2 spot, Marinova beat No. 28 Fichtbauer, 6-4,
7-5.
“Mentally, it has been hard to get used to playing No. 2
because last year I was not even in the lineup,” Marinova
said. “I thought, “˜I’m not ready for this,’
but now I’ve won two matches so I feel good.”
UCLA’s other point came at the No. 4 spot by
Fritz-Krockow.
“I just really didn’t want to lose,” she said.
“I wanted to win more than the other girl. It was my personal
duty to do everything possible to win for myself and for the
team.”
Fisher lost at the No. 3 spot in a tough match to Jardim, 5-7,
6-0, 6-4. At the No. 5 spot, Fresno State’s Ewa Grusiecka
beat Donahue, 6-3, 6-0. Kelly Ramirez defeated UCLA’s Godbey,
6-3, 6-2 at No. 6. The loss was frustrating because Godbey beat
Ramirez before in Juniors and thought there were some crucial bad
line calls.
Despite the disappointment, Godbey felt she proved herself.
“I lost the match, but I felt I played better than in
Wisconsin,” she said.
Saturday’s match against Oregon was rained out. The Bruins
will next play Pepperdine Tuesday at LATC.