By Brian Kiley
Daily Bruin Contributor
There is no shortage of motivation here, thank you. The most
passionate of pre-match speeches would do nothing for the Bruins at
this point. There is already a share of the Pac-10 title on
the line, not to mention a chance to avenge a 6-1 loss in Palo Alto
two weeks ago.
Tomorrow’s match against No. 12 Cal is important to No. 5
UCLA, but the focus is clearly on today’s 1:30 p.m. rematch
with No. 2 Stanford at the LATC. Rest assured that there is no love
lost between these elite teams.
“We want to beat them,” freshman Megan Bradley said.
“We really don’t like this team and we really want to
go out there and show them that when we lost to them it was a
fluke.”
That fluke, which included three narrow three-set losses, has
been on the mind of the Bruin players since it happened, and will
no doubt be on their minds today.
“It was so close,” freshman Sara Walker said.
“We just want revenge.”
Stanford (20-1, 6-0), with four players ranked in the top 25
nationally, won’t let revenge come easy, but the Bruins
(15-3, 5-1) know what they need to do to win.
“If we can just execute and finish off points then
we’ll be able to turn it around,” sophomore Lauren
Fisher said.
Against a team of this caliber it will be critical for the
Bruins to capitalize on easy points and keep unforced errors to a
minimum.
“To get the win we’ve got to play extremely well and
stay very focused,” UCLA head coach Stella Sampras said.
“We can’t play loose points against a team like
Stanford.”
In the match two weeks ago UCLA was without No. 4 singles player
Sarah Gregg. The freshman’s return to the line-up will allow
the Bruins to use all of their top six players this weekend.
“It makes us much stronger having Sarah Gregg in
there,” Sampras said. “It also gives Catherine (Hawley)
and Lauren (Fisher) different opponents who I think they match up
well against.”
This is senior weekend for UCLA, and for Hawley and fellow
senior Petya Marinova, that’s just all the more reason to
leave it all out on the court.
“I’m a little nervous just because these are my last
two dual matches ever,” Marinova said. “I’ll be
really happy if I can come out with wins this weekend.”
Not to be forgotten amidst the hype for the Stanford match is a
date with the Golden Bears the Bruins have on Saturday at noon.
Cal (12-7, 2-3) is currently fifth in the Pac-10, and lost to
UCLA 5-2 when the two teams met in Berkeley two weeks ago.
“Cal is a very strong team,” Sampras said. “We
can’t take them lightly.”
If UCLA is able to sweep this weekend and if USC, who will play
Cal Friday and Stanford Saturday, loses once, then the Bruins earn
at least a share of the Pac-10 title.
Senior Petya Marinova sat out last weekend’s matches
against Washington and Washington State due to a violation
involving prize money received at pro tournaments. NCAA rules state
that if a current college player participated in a pro tournament
prior to 1997 and received prize money (other than money to cover
expenses), he or she must sit out ten percent of their matches.
“Petya did everything right, but we didn’t have the
paperwork to prove that she only took expense money,” Sampras
said. “We didn’t want to take a chance and have it
affect us during the NCAA tournament. (After sitting out last
weekend’s matches) she is reinstated and ready to
go.”