Women's Tennis Splits for Fall Debut

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The UCLA women's tennis team kicks off the 2016-17 season in two different tournaments over the next week and a half. Freshman standout Ena Shibahara is set to compete in the 2016 Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships, while four Bruins head north for the Cal Nike Invitational this weekend.

The ITA Women's All-American Championships takes place Oct. 1-9 at the Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Pre-qualifying matches are slated to begin on Saturday, Oct. 1, at Pepperdine University, with qualifying matches starting on Oct. 4 and main draw contests getting underway on Oct. 6. The singles and doubles finals are scheduled for Oct. 9.

Shibahara, who captured the U.S. Open Girls' Doubles crown earlier this month with Hart, made the pre-qualifying singles list for the event. The Bruin newcomer also checked in at No. 2 on the preseason Oracle ITA Division I Women's National Newcomer/Freshmen Rankings (Sept. 13).

"I look forward to seeing Ena develop into an all court player," said UCLA head coach Stella Sampras Webster of the promising newcomer. "She is a great doubles player and I am looking forward to seeing her improve as a singles player. Her strengths are her serve and coming to net and finishing points. She has a great attitude, and has won a lot of sportsmanship awards. I'm excited to watch her grow."

Shibahara, the No. 7 seed in the pre-qualifying draw, faces Macarena Olivares of Texas A&M in the first round on Saturday at 2 p.m. PT on the upper courts.

Main draw singles semifinalists, main draw doubles finalists, and main draw consolation champions will receive automatic entry into the 2016 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, Nov. 3-6 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York.

Live stream of main draw matches will be available at FloTennis.com, while updated draws and main draw daily recaps can be found at the ITA Championship Central page.

For updates, follow @UCLAWTennis and @ITA_Tennis and use the hashtag #RivieraITA.

Cal Nike Invitational
Terri Fleming, Kristin Wiley, Alaina Miller, and Jada Hart make their season debut at Cal's Hellman Tennis Complex. Joining UCLA are the following schools: Arizona State, BYU, Cal Poly, UC Davis, Fresno State, Nevada, Pacific, Sacramento State, Saint Mary's, San Francisco, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, and host Cal. The three-day event consists of three flights of singles and doubles tournaments.

"For us, it is about finding out where we are at right now," said Sampras Webster of facing the Invite's stacked field. "I'm looking forward to seeing our girls compete against high-level players. We'll find out how prepared we are for competition based on what we've done over the summer, and we'll learn what we need to work on to get better moving forward."

Sixth-seeded Fleming, seventh-seeded Wiley, and Hart are slated to play in the ITA Blue Singles flight. Wiley faces Fresno State's Katerina Stloukalova at 9 a.m., while Fleming takes on Kareena Manji of Saint Mary's at 10:45 a.m. At 12:30 p.m., Hart squares off with Fresno State's Emma Wilson. In the ITA Gold Singles flight, top-seeded Miller plays Pari Kaur (Saint Mary's) at 9 a.m. All secound round matches take place Friday afternoon.

In doubles play, Hart and Fleming team up to battle BYU's Mayci Jones and Polina Malykh in the ITA Blue Doubles flight while Miller and Wiley take on fourth-seeded Anna Sokiran and Margarita Treyes (USF) in the ITA Gold Doubles flight. Both matches kick off at 8 a.m. on Friday.

Tournament action on courts 1-6 at Hellman will be live streamed via CalBears.com. For score updates from the Channing Tennis Courts, please follow UCLA Women's Tennis on Twitter. Updated draws are available on the tournament page.

Season Outlook
After losing veterans Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips, the Bruins will use the fall season to rebuild and fill the holes left by the graduating seniors.

"Our focus right now is trying to figure out doubles partners after losing our top doubles players from last year," said Sampras Webster of the team's goal for this fall. "The singles lineup will be wide open and we'll look for players to step up. The fall will be a time where we find a leader to step up and carry this team in the fall and into dual match season.

"This year we'll still be young," added Sampras Webster. "But I'm hoping the returners can lead us and get us going in the right direction."

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Women's Tennis Splits for Fall Debut

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Women's Tennis Splits for Fall Debut

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