University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA
Oklahoma State
Road Tests Await No. 8 Women's Tennis
January 30, 2019 | Women's Tennis
The No. 8 UCLA women's tennis team hits the road this week, visiting the state of Oklahoma for dates at Oklahoma State and Tulsa. The Bruins' first two dual matches away from Los Angeles Tennis Center will represent stiff challenges, as the Cowgirls (4-1) and Hurricane (5-3) have each been nationally ranked by the ITA in the early season. The weekend trip gets started Saturday in Stillwater, Okla., with first serve between the Bruins and No. 9 Cowgirls set for 1 p.m., PT. A live stream from the Greenwood Tennis Center will be available at okstate.com/watchtennis. Then, Sunday at 9 a.m., PT, play from the Michael D. Case Tennis Center will begin with live updates at streamingtennis.com/tulsa.
LAST WEEK
With 4-0 sweeps of Minnesota and Loyola Marymount, UCLA had a successful ITA Kick-Off Weekend at Los Angeles Tennis Center. The Bruins received little pushback either day on the doubles courts, with the Court 3 combinations of Taylor Johnson-Alaina Miller and Johnson-Abi Altick clinching the opening points. Courts 1, 4 and 2 recorded the singles wins Friday against the Golden Gophers, while 6, 2 and 5 took care of business Saturday versus the Lions. None of the winning singles players surrendered more than three games in a set across the two days. Altick's 6-2, 6-2 win over Minnesota's Tiffany Huber on Court 2 clinched the first match, while Johnson's 6-3, 6-2 triumph over LMU's Camila Tumosa moved the Bruins into next month's ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle.
UCLA VS. OKLAHOMA STATE/TULSA
The Bruins hold a 2-1 record against the Cowgirls, with the lone loss having come in a three-plus-hour affair last season at LATC. Ranked No. 15 at the time, the Bruins picked up the doubles point against the No. 19 Cowgirls. The difference was ultimately made on the top four singles courts, however, where Oklahoma State logged wins across the board. The match was clinched on Court 3, where Katarina Stresnakova defeated Altick, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1. UCLA, meanwhile, has won its only match against Tulsa. The teams faced off Jan. 30, 2010 at LATC, where the Bruins registered a 4-1 win to qualify for ITA Indoors.
BOLTON BREAKTHROUGH
Elysia Bolton was dominant in her first-career dual matches, with no performance bigger than her singles debut in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend first round. The freshman rose to the occasion on the top court, blanking No. 95 Tina Kreinis of Minnesota in the first set on the way to a 6-0, 6-3 victory that increased the UCLA lead to 2-0. She also cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win over Eva Marie Voracek of Loyola Marymount to give the Bruins a 3-0 lead in the championship match. For good measure, playing with different partners, Bolton tallied doubles wins of 6-2 over Huber and Kreinis of the Golden Gophers and 6-1 over Siobhan Anderson and Lilian Gabrielsen of the Lions—both on Court 2.
BRUINS IN THE RANKINGS
UCLA has been slotted at No. 8 in each of the first three installments of the Oracle ITA team rankings, the latest made available Jan. 30, 2019. The top-10 appearance marked the Bruins' first to start a season since 2016. While player rankings have not been released this year, a number of Bruins were spread across the Nov. 14 installment. Bolton's standout fall was rewarded with a No. 11 singles ranking. Joining her on that list was Altick at No. 113. The duo of Andrews and Broomfield is No. 6 among doubles tandems. The pair of Bolton and Hart is No. 12, while Altick and Miller is No. 36. The teams sits at No. 5 in the first edition of the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25 Rankings.
2017-18 IN REVIEW
It was a stellar all-around season for the Bruins, who went 23-6 on the way to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Championships before seeing their journey come to an end in a 4-3 shootout versus Georgia Tech. UCLA lost just one Pac-12 match during the regular season and won 11 contests in a row before falling to eventual NCAA champion Stanford in a hard-fought title match at the Pac-12 Championships. Ena Shibahara starred individually, earning recognition as ITA Player to Watch, Pac-12 Singles Player of the Year and an All-Pac-12 First-Team member. Shibahara, Hart and Terri Fleming received All-America accolades from the ITA. Hart, Fleming, Altick and Alaina Miller joined Shibahara in garnering All-Pac-12 honors.
WHO'S GONE?
Shibahara, who went 27-10 in singles play and 28-4 in doubles action in 2017-18, has departed to pursue a professional career. All 21 of her dual-match singles decisions came on the top court. The steady Fleming has graduated. She went 16-14 in singles play and a team-best 14-8 in dual-match doubles play. Kristin Wiley is gone after a 4-5 singles showing and a 3-3 doubles effort, while Kelly Shaffer rounds out the list of Bruins absent from the 2017-18 team.
WHO'S BACK?
All-American and two-time All-Pac-12 Second Teamer Hart is back after filling the No. 2 singles spot for a vast majority of the 2017-18 dual-match season. The redshirt junior was also one half of the top doubles tandem. Seniors Andrews, Broomfield and Miller also bring experience and 2017-18 success. Andrews-Broomfield went 10-4 from the No. 2 doubles slot, while Broomfield went 17-11 across three singles courts. Miller lost just once in her final 19 singles matches and failed to lose any of her final 19 doubles contests. Altick is back after a standout debut season. The Monroe, La. native registered a team-high 30 singles wins. Sophomore Sophie Bendetti is also back.
WHO'S NEW?
Two of the nation's top recruits join the fold in Bolton and Johnson. Bolton, a Blue-Chip prospect according to TennisRecruting.net, was ranked No. 4 in the nation by the website at the time of her signing. Nationally, the USTA had the right-hander slotted at No. 13 in its Girls 18s doubles rankings, as well. In September, Bolton made a run to the quarterfinal round at the US Open Junior Tennis Championships in both the singles and doubles competitions. Johnson has spent the past two years atop the TennisRecruiting.net rankings. In 2017, she teamed with Claire Liu to claim the doubles title at the USTA Girls' 18 National Championships in San Diego. The 5-10 left-hander has participated in all four Grand Slam junior tournaments, notching quarterfinal-round berths in each doubles draw. LaFrance is a veteran of the ITF circuit, nothing nine doubles championships with five partners across four continents.
KATZ FAMILY SCOREBOARD
UCLA tennis and the UCLA Athletic Department debuted the Katz Family Scoreboard Wednesday, Jan. 9 in front of donors and special invited guests at LATC. The ceremony culminated in a ribbon cutting by the Katz Family, Director of Athletics Dan Guerrero, women's tennis head coach Stella Sampras Webster and men's tennis head coach Billy Martin. Each, along with Sr. Associate Athletic Director, External Relations Josh Rebholz, made remarks highlighting the meaning of the Katz Family's generous donation and the opportunities the scoreboard will provide the UCLA tennis programs. The Katz Family Scoreboard's Daktronics display, measuring 18 feet high and 31.2 feet wide, is among the largest LED video screens in collegiate tennis. Stationed at the east end of LATC's main stadium courts, the board has a 13HD pixel pitch capable of switching between content playback mode and video mode using Show Control. RGB LED lights, meanwhile, will allow for a multitude of graphics possibilities. Also new to the match-day experience is a custom JBL speaker system set to improve audio on the front courts while introducing sound to the back courts.
ALUMNAE SPOTLIGHT
Jennifer Brady was part of the 2014 NCAA championship-winning team as a Bruin and her winning ways have continued into the professional ranks. Brady had a breakout 2017 and showed she was no fluke in 2018, having now reached the singles second round of each Grand Slam tournament. She broke onto the scene at the 2017 Australian Open, winning all three of her qualifying matches before notching three more victories in the main draw. Brady went on to reach the fourth round at the 2017 US Open, as well. She also had doubles success, advancing to the third round of the 2018 French Open and the semifinal round of the 2019 Australian Open. Brady, a Boca Raton, Fla. native, has been ranked as high as No. 60 (Oct. 16, 2017) in the WTA singles rankings and she recently climbed to a career-best No. 53 (Jan. 28, 2019) on the doubles list.
HEAD COACH STELLA SAMPRAS WEBSTER
Head coach Stella Sampras Webster is in her 23rd season at the helm of the UCLA women's tennis program, holding an impressive overall record of 422-158 (.728). Sampras Webster has guided the Bruins to NCAA team championships in 2008 and 2014, the first two in program history. The 2012 ITA National Coach of the Year, Stella Sampras Webster is also responsible for helping the Bruins to their first Pac-10 Championship in 2008. For her efforts, she was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year at the end of the season. In all, Sampras Webster's teams have finished in the top 10 at the NCAA Championships in 19 of her 22 seasons in Westwood. UCLA has also finished in the top five nationally on 13 occasions. The 2000 ITA West Region Coach of the Year, Sampras Webster has recruited and coached some of the top players in collegiate tennis. Under her tutelage, a total of 28 players have achieved All-America status.
Players Mentioned
