Walker will sit out championships due to
injury
UCLA freshman Sara Walker, ranked No. 2 nationally by the ITA,
was forced to retire from her first-round match at the NCAA singles
championships Monday due to a bulging disk in her back.
Walker lost the first set of her opening-round match against
Mississippi’s Julie DeRoo 6-2 and was leading 5-2 in the
second before the injury began to flare up.
The trainer was called to the court at 5-3 but at 5-5 Walker
chose to retire.
“I was up 5-2 in the second set, but my back was so bad I
couldn’t even move,” Walker said after the match.
“It’s frustrating because I’ve worked so hard
this year.”
Walker and doubles partner Amanda Basica were forced to withdraw
from the doubles competition as well because of the injury.
Earlier this month Walker capped off a successful freshman
campaign when she won the Pac-10 individual singles title in Ojai,
Calif.
Cooper falls in NCAA singles
With Walker’s withdrawal, the Bruins were left with one
player in the singles draw at the NCAA championships in Malibu.
Senior Annica Cooper kept the Bruins’ hopes alive when she
won her first-round match over eighth-seeded Megan Miller of Duke,
7-5, 6-4.
On Tuesday, however, she fell 6-3, 6-1 in her second-round match
to Arizona State’s Karin Palme.
Brown, Walker get ITA honors
UCLA assistant coach Rance Brown and freshman Sara Walker each
took home national honors Sunday from the ITA.
Brown, in his fifth year at UCLA, was named the ITA’s
National Coach of the Year. Last week he was also named the West
Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
Walker was selected as the ITA’s National Player to Watch.
The Player to Watch award is given to a high-ranking non-senior
player who has had a successful season but has not yet won an ITA
Collegiate Grand Slam event.
Basica, Cooper named Academic All-Americans
UCLA senior tennis players Amanda Basica and Annica Cooper were
named to the GTE Academic All-American District VIII first and
second teams Tuesday.
Basica currently holds a 3.70 GPA as a communications major.
Cooper, who could become the fifth four-time All-American in UCLA
history, owns a 3.65 GPA as a business economics major.
Both are eligible for the GTE Academic All-American national
awards, which will be announced on June 15.
Compiled by Scott Street, Daily Bruin Senior Staff.