UCLA
South Carolina
No. 8 UCLA Ready for Play at ITA Indoors
February 07, 2019 | Women's Tennis
The No. 8 UCLA women's tennis team will open play at the 2019 Oracle ITA National Team Indoor Championships Friday against No. 15 South Carolina in Seattle. First serve between the Bruins (4-0) and the Gamecocks (4-1) will take place at 12 p.m., PT from the Seattle Tennis Club. UCLA is guaranteed at least three matches in Seattle, with contests also slated for play at the Nordstrom Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Washington. The Bruins dropped their first two matches at last year's Indoor Championships, but still left Madison, Wisc. with a win. Links to live scoring and live streaming, as well as other tournament information, are available HERE.
LAST WEEK
The Bruins hit the road for the first time and picked up impressive wins at No. 9 Oklahoma State and Tulsa. Elysia Bolton posted both clinching wins. The freshman also teamed with Jada Hart to claim the doubles point against the Cowgirls and Abi Altick and Alaina Miller each won by way of retirement to set her up to seal the 4-1 overall win. One day later, UCLA claimed the doubles point before Taylor Johnson, Ayan Broomfield and Bolton sped through singles without surrendering more than three games in a set.
UCLA VS. SOUTH CAROLINA
UCLA holds an all-time record of 5-0 against South Carolina, with the most recent meeting coming at last year's Indoors event in Madison, Wisc. The Bruins took on the Gamecocks in a consolation match on the third day of competition following narrow defeats at the hands of two top-15 teams. UCLA played inspired, though, dealing South Carolina a 4-1 loss. In a dramatic finish to doubles play, Hart and Terri Fleming prevailed with a 7-6 (4) win on the top court. The Bruins took momentum from that performance into singles play, where Altick, Hart and Ena Shibahara were victorious.
BOLTON NAMED PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Bolton was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 28-Feb. 3, the conference announced Tuesday. UCLA improved to 4-0 thanks in large part to Bolton's efforts, as the Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. native clinched Bruin road wins at Oklahoma State (Feb. 2) and Tulsa (Feb. 3). In addition to Bolton's singles successes, the first-year player teamed with Hart for a pair of doubles triumphs. Saturday's win secured the doubles point, propelling the Bruins to victory over the No. 9 Cowgirls. The award represents the first of Bolton's career and 23rd all time for the UCLA women's tennis program.
BRUINS IN THE RANKINGS
UCLA remained at No. 8 in in the latest installment of the Oracle ITA team rankings, announced Wednesday. The Bruins' initial top-10 appearance on Jan. 9 marked their first to start a season since 2016. Six UCLA players appeared in the latest individual rankings, also announced Wednesday. Bolton leads the way at No. 18 on the singles list. Altick is next at No. 77, while Broomfield rounds out the trio on that list at No. 117. The pairing of Broomfield and Gabby Andrews checks in at No. 14 in the doubles rankings, while Bolton-Hart backs them up at No. 15. The team also currently sits at No. 5 in the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25 Rankings.
2017-18 IN REVIEW
It was a stellar all-around 2017-18 campaign 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. 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 Fleming received All-America accolades from the ITA. Hart, Fleming, Altick and 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 424-158 (.729). 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
