By Eric Perez
Daily Bruin Contributor
UCLA women’s tennis enjoyed a successful weekend at the
Pac-10 Indoors at the University of Washington over the
weekend.
The Pac-10 indoors, not quite an exhibition and not quite as
crucial as the dual matches soon to come, gave the Bruins one last
chance to concentrate on personal and doubles national rankings
before focusing their energies toward their team goal of an NCAA
title.
As advertised, the Bruins’ doubles teams made their
presence felt by winning two of the three tournament flights.
UCLA’s duo of Megan Bradley and Lauren Fisher obliterated
Washington State’s Stacey McKenna and Megan Perkins 8-1 to
win the Flight I title. Taking the Flight II title was the Bruin
duo of Catherine Hawley and Sarah Gregg, beating down the
cross-town rival tandem of Bernadette Bayani and Maureen Diaz from
USC, 8-5.
Gregg, a freshman competing in her first season tournament, was
pleased with her and Hawley’s doubles victory and
didn’t hesitate to praise her teammates.
“It was nice to have won (the Flight II title), because
Catherine and I had lost in the singles, but I think we all
competed pretty well,” she said. “It was good to see
(all the Pac-10 competition) and learn what we need to do to
improve and win the NCAA.
“And it was nice to see Lauren do well.”
Enjoying perhaps the most success of the Bruins was Fisher who,
along with her doubles title, won the Flight III singles title
defeating ‘SC’s Bayani 6-1, 6-1 in the final.
“It was exciting, because that was my goal ““ to do
well in both singles and doubles. Megan and I did really well and
we kicked some butt,” Fisher said.
Bradley, ranked No. 7 in the nation and making her freshman
debut as well, suffered a first round upset but rallied back to win
the Flight I consolation bracket.
“Honestly it’s a little disappointing,” said
Bradley who outlasted Arizona State’s Adria Engel 1-6, 6-1,
6-1 in the consolation final. “I kind of had a difficult time
putting all the pieces together, but I think I fought pretty hard
and it can only get better from here.”
Now with this tournament under their belts and hopefully the
rust shaken off from the Fall to Winter season layover, the No. 16
Bruins look optimistically toward the official start of the regular
season.
“We all know from this weekend where we are at and we
don’t want to peak too soon,” Gregg said. “But I
think we are ready for the season (of dual matches) to
come.”