MOHAMMAD ALAVI Catherine
Hawleyconcentrates on the ball during a game earlier this
season.
By Hannah Gordon
Daily Bruin Contributor
Do or die.
That is how Head Coach Stella Sampras looks at this
weekend’s NCAA Regionals. If the Bruins beat Georgia Tech and
then Fresno State they will advance to the 16-team NCAA
Championship Finals in Atlanta next weekend. If not, the season is
over.
“This is why we play,” Sampras said of the NCAA
Championships. “This is the exciting part, what it’s
all about. You gotta love it.”
The No. 30 Bruins will first face No. 46 Georgia Tech Saturday
while No. 12 Fresno plays unranked Cal State Northridge. The
winners of each match will play one another Sunday for a spot in
the finals next weekend. After a disappointing 7-17 overall record,
the Bruins were pleased with their draw as a second seed in the
region.
UCLA has not played Georgia Tech this season, but they consulted
other coaches to find out more about their opponents.
“Georgia Tech may not have a lot of talent, but
they’re fighters and they’re coached well,”
Sampras said.
But Georgia Tech’s spark may not be enough for a UCLA team
that has both talent and determination.
UCLA and Fresno State, who are favored to make the final, have
matched up once before this season. UCLA lost to Fresno 5-2 on Feb.
23. However, the Bruins were playing without Coach Sampras and No.
1 player, sophomore Sara Walker, ranked No. 18 nationally.
“I know they’re thinking, “˜we did it once, we
can do it again,'” freshman Mariko Fritz-Krockow said
of Fresno. But the Bruins are thinking revenge and the players are
confident after winning the Pac-10 Tournament last weekend.
The victory proved that their 7-17 record for the season does
not reflect how they are playing now.
“We are a much better team than when we lost to
Fresno,” junior Catherine Hawley said. “We
weren’t experienced: we had two freshman and two people who
didn’t play in the lineup last year. Now we’ve had a
lot of match experience.”
The team made some changes in the lineup to prepare for
regionals. Freshman Lauren Fisher and junior Petya Marinova, whose
shoulder is bothering her, have swapped spots with Fisher now
playing No. 3 and Marinova playing No. 4.
“It’s a compliment. In the middle of the season I
felt like I was struggling but I pulled it together and it’s
nice that they saw that,” Fisher said.
The other lineup change is in doubles where Hawley will play at
No. 3 with senior Jennifer Donahue instead of freshman Chelsea
Godbey. The two feel comfortable together and played well in a
recent scrimmage against USC.
UCLA and Stanford are the only two teams to be among the top 64
teams in the NCAA Championships every year since the women’s
championships began in 1982. Additionally, with the exception of
the 1999 season, UCLA has also made the 16-team Finals every year.
While the team takes pride in that history, they are also pressured
by it.
“There is a legacy,” Sampras said. “UCLA
should get to Georgia. But we’re taking it one match at a
time.”
The players are less focused on history as the more recent
past.
“I’m looking at regionals as a way of salvaging the
whole season,” Donahue said. “There’s not a doubt
in my mind it can be done.”