LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The 25th-ranked UCLA women's tennis team hits the road this week to take on the Bay Area teams. The Bruins face top-ranked Cal on Friday at 1:30 p.m. before squaring off with No. 23 Stanford on Saturday at noon.
UCLA (9-3, 2-0) is fresh off back-to-back conference wins against the Washington schools. The Bruins cruised to a 6-1 victory over No. 47 Washington State in its Pac-12 opener last Friday. After securing the doubles point on courts 1 and 3, UCLA set the pace in singles, taking five of six first sets over the Cougars. Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips quickly extended the lead to 3-0. Freshman Alaina Miller sealed the deal for the Bruins on court 3, edging the Cougars' Barbora Michalkova in a second-set tiebreaker.
The Bruins completed the sweep when they downed No. 41 Washington on Saturday. For the second straight match, Miller won the deciding point for UCLA. This time, Miller edged the Dawgs' Tami Grende in a third-set tiebreaker to clinch the match.
In the latest ITA Singles Rankings (Mar. 8), Harrison remains at No. 19 and McPhillips enters at No. 96. After falling to Washington's Nour Abbes and Miki Kobayashi, Harrison and McPhillips slipped a spot to No. 6 in the ITA Doubles Rankings.
Scouting the Golden Bears
Cal (12-0, 2-0) returned to the No. 1 spot in the ITA Team Rankings after downing the Arizona teams last week. After dropping the doubles point to No. 36 Arizona State, the Bears rallied to win the match, 5-2. Cal nearly swept singles play, but ASU's Kassidy Jump upset No. 5 Klara Fabikova in straights on court 2. The Bears added another win to their unblemished dual match record when they steamrolled No. 64 Arizona, 6-1. The Wildcats' lone point came from court 1, where No. 54 Lauren Marker upset No. 10 Maegan Manasse of Cal.
The Golden Bears currently have five players ranked nationally in singles—No. 11 Fabikova, No. 12 Manasse, No. 56 Lynn Chi, No. 60 Denise Starr, and No. 77 Olivia Hauger. In doubles, Manasse/Starr check in at No. 4 and Fabikova/Hauger rank 72nd.
Scouting the Cardinal
Stanford (6-3, 1-1) was on a five-win streak before dropping a match to Arizona State last week in Tempe. In 56 all-time meetings, this was just the second time that the Cardinal has fallen to the Sun Devils. After dropping the doubles point, Stanford bounced back to take a 2-1 lead. From there, the match went back and forth until ASU's Gussie O'Sullivan outlasted Stanford's Kimberly Yee in a three setter. With the loss on court 6, the Cardinal fell 4-3 to the Sun Devils.
Four of Stanford's players are ranked nationally in singles—Taylor Davidson (No. 26), Caroline Doyle (No. 55), Carol Zhao (No. 59), and Krista Hardebeck (No. 88). In doubles, Davidson/Doyle are ranked No. 3 and Lampl/Hardebeck punch in at No. 49.
Live stream for Friday's match against Cal is available here. Live stream for Saturday's match against Stanford is available here.