With their nationally ranked No. 4 doubles team absent, the
Bruin doubles teams may not have seemed to be a factor over the
weekend at the Pac-10 Championships. However, freshmen Tracy Lin
and Elizabeth Lumpkin showed the crowd they too were a force to be
reckoned with in Ojai. Over the weekend, the pair of freshmen
reached the finals of the invitational Pac-10 draw before narrowly
losing to Oregon’s Ester Bak and Davina Mendiburu 9-8 (6).
“I think we played as well as we should have,” said
UCLA women’s tennis coach Stella Sampras Webster. “It
was definitely a match they could have won and there were a lot of
chances they could have won it. Overall, I think we did as well as
we were expecting.” The duo took center stage for the Bruins
as Daniela Bercek and Riza Zalameda, UCLA’s top doubles
tandem, skipped the tournament in favor of resting up for the
upcoming NCAA tournament. After Alex McGoodwin and Laura Gordon
took an early exit on Friday in the first round of the main draw,
it left Lumpkin and Lin as the only remaining team. The two were
able to defeat Erin Everly and Taylynn Snyder of USC 8-1 in the
first round and Monika Kolbovic and Tara Simpson of Washington 8-5
in the quarterfinals to move on into the semifinals on Saturday. On
Saturday, the two faced Kasia Jakowlew and Kelly Perry of Arizona,
and won 8-4 to advance to the final. While the results from this
weekend’s tournament have no bearing on the team’s NCAA
seeding, they do have an effect on the singles and doubles players
who get to play in the individual portion of the NCAA tournament.
Sampras Webster knows that Bercek and Zalameda should be locks for
both singles and doubles bids, but is less optimistic about the
chances for the rest of the team. “We haven’t had as
strong of records as other players in our region,” Sampras
Webster said. “It will be hard to get more than those two in
the tournament.”
MEN’S TENNIS: It’s been a while since the UCLA
men’s tennis team didn’t have a contingent on the final
day of play at Ojai. But when Alberto Francis and Kris Kwinta bowed
out to eventual champions Sam Warburg and KC Corkery 8-4 of
Stanford in the semifinals of the Pac-10 doubles tournament, it
marked the end of a quiet run for the Bruins at Ojai. Francis and
Kwinta were the only Bruins to get to the semifinals of the main
draw. Freshman Mathieu Dehaine reached the semifinals of the
invitational draw before losing to Cal’s Ken Nakahara 3-6,
6-0, 6-4. Dehaine also teamed with Chris Lam to reach the
semifinals of the invitational doubles. The pair lost to
USC’s Jeff Kazarian and Kaes Van’t Hof 8-6.
UCLA’s top two singles players, Luben Pampoulov and Benjamin
Kohlloeffel, did not play in the event. Stanford’s Sam
Warburg won the singles title.
Compiled by David Garcia and Andrew Finley, Bruin Sports
senior staff.