UCLA
National Collegiate Tennis Classic
Bruins Begin 2018 at Two Tournaments
January 11, 2018 | Women's Tennis
LOS ANGELES โ The UCLA women's tennis team will begin 2018 at a pair of tournaments, beginning Friday. The Bruins will send five players to the Freeman Memorial Classic in Las Vegas, Nev. and four more to the National Collegiate Tennis Classic in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
The Freeman draw has Bruins atop both the singles and doubles brackets. Two Bruin doubles teams will begin play Friday at 10:00 a.m. The duo of Ena Shibahara and Jada Hart, slotted at No. 7 by Oracle/ITA, possesses the top seed. They will take on the Texas team of Petra Granic and Marta Perez-Mur in the opening round. Bruins Terri Fleming and Ayan Broomfield, meanwhile, will face off with the Pepperdine duo of Evgeniya Levashova and Ashley Lahey.
Shibahara, ranked No. 16 in the nation by Oracle/ITA, has the top seed in the 32-player singles field. She was rewarded with a first-round bye and will begin play Friday afternoon. Freshman Abi Altick, who is ranked No. 46 in the nation following an impressive fall that saw the newcomer tally an 11-3 record, is seeded sixth. She will face off with Aiwen Zhu of host UNLV in her first first-round contest.
No. 119 Hart will take on Petra Granic of Texas, who is seeded fifth and ranked No. 32 in the nation. Clemson transfer Broomfield will take on Victoria Emma of Florida, while No. T100 Fleming will look to improve on her impressive 10-2 start to the season against En-Pei Huang of UNLV.
Altick, Hart and Broomfield will begin play Friday at 11:00 a.m., while Fleming will start at 12:00 p.m.
Bruins Gabby Andrews, Sophie Bendetti, Alaina Miller and Kristin Wiley will take part in the Natonal Collegiate Tennis Classic. In limited fall action, Andrews won three of four singles matches, but ran off a 10-3 mark in doubles. The sophomore joined Hart to win the doubles title at the October ITA Regional Championships. They are now ranked No. 27 in the nation. Freshman Bendetti joined Miller to win her first doubles decision in November, when the pair defeated USC's Constance Branstine and Alexa Corcoleotes at the Jack Kramer Collegiate Tournament. Miller notched a 5-3 singles record in the fall, including a win over then-No. 75 Olivia Hauger of California at the Cal Fall Invitational, while Wiley joined Andrews to win the doubles consolation championship at Berkeley.
Players Mentioned
