CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Sara Walker
plays No. 1 doubles in the meet against the Oregon Ducks,
Saturday.
By Brian Kiley
Daily Bruin Contributor
If there was ever a bad day for the Oregon Ducks to come to the
L.A. Tennis Center, Saturday was that day. The No. 8 Bruins were
coming off of two consecutive narrow losses to ranked opponents and
were ready to beat up somebody.
The Ducks, who are currently last in the Pac-10, fit the bill
perfectly. UCLA (9-2) pounded Oregon (7-9) 7-0 to get back on
track.
UCLA dominated the match right from the start, sweeping the
doubles with no team surrendering more than four games. Bruin
freshman Megan Bradley continued to roll at the No. 1 one singles
spot by quickly beating Janice Nyland 6-2, 6-2.
“I really focused on keeping the points short and putting
the ball away,” said Bradley, who has not lost in nearly a
month.
Sara Walker did not play singles because she is nursing a minor
groin injury, but Petya Marinova filled in admirably at the No. 2
spot, grinding out a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 win. Lauren Fisher also notched
a three-win, while Sarah Gregg, Catherine Hawley and Mariko
Fritz-Krockow all earned straight set victories.
“This was a good match for us to get a “˜W’
before we go against a team that is very strong like Duke,”
UCLA head coach Stella Sampras said.
UCLA will face the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils (8-1) on Tuesday at
LATC. This match is a rare chance for the Bruins to play the role
of underdog.
“This will be a good opportunity for us to play a team
where we have everything to gain,” Sampras said.
“They’ll be able to play a little looser than they have
because we’ve had so many matches where we are expected to
win.”
Despite recent losses to Texas and USC, the Bruins feel there is
very little they need to change before taking on Duke, and they are
very confident that they will be able to compete well against the
top team in the ACC.
“I don’t think (the two losses) were really
destructive on our confidence,” Bradley said. “Losing
4-3 is just a matter of a couple of points here and there. I
definitely think we are really pumped for Duke, just because we
have nothing to lose. We can just go out and have fun out
there.”
UCLA holds the clear advantage in the doubles portion of this
match, with Walker and Marinova ranked No. 3 in the nation and
Bradley and Fisher ranked No. 5. Duke’s top-ranked doubles
team is No. 15.
Duke is remarkably deep in singles, with four players ranked in
the top 75 nationally. Despite this, the equally talented Bruins
feel that if they play smart on key points, they can give Duke a
run for their money.
“We need to come out the same as we did (in the Texas and
USC matches),” Gregg said. “But on the big points we
need to be really switched on, because there are just a few points
here and there that we need to sharpen up on.”
Currently, Gregg (back), Bradley (shin), and Walker (groin) all
have minor injuries, but they are expected to be 100 percent by
match time on Tuesday.