KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Sara
Walker participates in the ITA National Indoor
Championships.
By Hannah Gordon
Daily Bruin Contributor
Sara Walker went to Texas with two goals: to play some good
matches and to raise her confidence.
Mission accomplished.
UCLA’s No. 1 player made it to the quarterfinals of the
ITA National Indoor Championships, where she was defeated by the
tournament’s No. 3 seed, Michelle Dasso of Notre Dame.
“I think I had a good tournament,” said Walker, who
was unseeded at the tournament. “I played well.”
She won her first-round match on Thursday, beating the No. 6
seed, Tulane’s Anna Monhartova, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
“Stella told me to relax in the second set,” Walker
said. She took her coach’s advice and defeated Monhartova to
advance to the second round.
“Sara played some great matches,” said head coach
Stella Sampras. “Getting through the first round, beating the
No. 6 seed, gives her the confidence to play at the high level
required for the No. 1 spot at UCLA.”
Teammate Zana Zlebnik agreed. “I don’t think she was
too happy with her fall tournaments so this one was good for her
confidence because she had two good matches against the top 32
girls in the country.”
In the second round, Walker beat Florida’s Jessica
Lenhoff, 6-4, 6-4.
“She got better each round,” Sampras said.
After a second-round victory, Walker entered the quarterfinals
with seven of the best players in the nation. In a close match,
Dasso defeated Walker 6-1, 2-6, 6-4.
“I could have beat her but I was inconsistent,”
Walker said.
Sampras agreed that consistency is key at the quarterfinals
level. “You’ve got to be able to hit six great shots,
you can’t just hit two or three like in some
matches.”
“She lost a tough one in the quarters,” Sampras
added. “She got a little impatient and wanted to finish
points so she rushed a little too much.”
After beating Walker, Dasso went on to the semifinals where she
was defeated by Laura Granville of Stanford. Granville, last
year’s winner, went on to defeat Duke’s Ansley Cargill
6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 to become the first player to win the ITA
Championship two years in a row.
“Granville is just so solid: she doesn’t give away
free points,” Sampras said. Sampras would have liked to see
Walker play Granville over the weekend, but will have to wait until
the Bruins play at Stanford on April 6.
Her performance at the tournament will probably put Walker in
the top 10 or 15 players in the country when new rankings come out
in a few weeks.