Before the NCAA tournament draw was revealed, there was one
scenario coach Stella Sampras Webster was hoping to avoid. She
didn’t even consider the one her team got. With the No. 9
seed, the UCLA women’s tennis team was put in the dreaded
position of a potential quarterfinal match against the top seed.
Although the seeding may not have been too surprising considering
their No. 8 ranking, their opponent in the round of 16 is. With
sixth-ranked USC drawing a No. 8 seed, the Bruins will likely face
the cross-town rival that swept them during the regular season.
Facing them again is not what Sampras Webster wanted for this
tournament. “You don’t want to have to see a team three
times in a year,” she said. “We want to see how we
match up against teams outside of our conference.” Their
first two matches at home won’t give the team a chance to see
new opponents either. The Bruins defeated their first-round
opponent, Long Beach State, 7-0 during the regular season last year
and have beaten their likely second-round opponent, Pepperdine,
five times in the past two seasons, including a 4-1 win in last
season’s NCAA regionals. But the rematch the Bruins will
probably face in Athens, Ga. will be nothing like their first two
rounds. The Bruins have lost to the Trojans four straight times and
captured only one singles set in their meeting two months ago.
Nevertheless, Bruin players look forward to knocking off their
cross-town rivals. “We’re much stronger now than when
we last played them,” sophomore Jackie Carleton said.
“It’s a great time to get revenge.” It is
disheartening, though, that such revenge would come so early in the
tournament. A win over the Trojans would pit the Bruins against the
undefeated and defending champion Florida Gators. Yet what bothers
the Bruins so much is not the tough draw they have been dealt, but
the relatively easy one a Pac-10 rival of theirs has. Washington,
who fell decisively to both the Trojans and Bruins earlier this
season, was given the No. 4 seed. “That doesn’t make
any sense,” Carleton said. “They were fourth in the
Pac-10 and now they’re seeded fourth in the NCAA
tournament.” “It’s shocking,” Sampras
Webster added. “All year long we had this ranking system, but
you never know how the committee is going to decide
things.”
PLAYERS HONORED: Daniela Bercek was named
Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and also earned second-team
All-Conference honors. Bercek recently moved to the No. 1 spot in
the Bruins’ lineup and has picked up impressive wins over
Pac-10 Player of the Year Raquel Kops-Jones of Cal and first-team
selection Dea Sumantri of Washington. “It’s a nice
surprise,” Bercek said. “There’s so many good
players out there.” Carleton was also a second-team
all-conference selection.