University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA
Illinois
UCLA Set to Face Illinois in ITA Indoors Opener
February 06, 2020 | Women's Tennis
The fourth-ranked UCLA women's tennis team will have a chance to play against some of the nation's top-ranked teams this week, as it heads to Chicago for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. Play from the XS Tennis Village begins Friday, with the Bruins facing off against host Illinois at 4:30 p.m., PT. Each participant will play at least three matches over the course of the four-day tournament. Live stats will be available HERE.
LAST WEEK
UCLA registered a pair of 7-0 home wins over the weekend, beating Saint Mary's (Feb. 1) and UC Santa Barbara (Feb. 2). No Bruin surrendered more than four games in a set against the Gaels on Saturday. Abbey Forbes clinched the victory, capping a run of dominating performances started by fellow Sasha Vagramov and Abi Altick. Jada Hart added a win in her 2020 dual-match debut, while Annette Goulak and Elysia Bolton rounded out the list of winners. For good measure, the Saint Mary's did not tally more than two games on any of the doubles courts. The next day, Altick completed the sweep with a straight-set win on Court 4 for UCLA. Bolton, Forbes and Goulak posted comeback efforts in singles play, while Hart and Vagramov also won. Neither of the Bruins' victorious doubles teams surrendered more than two games.
BOLTON NAMED PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Bolton was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 27-Feb. 2, the conference announced Tuesday. Bolton turned in her finest win of the young season on Saturday, when she beat 15th-ranked Mariia Kozyreva of Saint Mary's by a 6-4, 6-3 score on the top court. The next day, No. 14 Bolton faced an early 1-5 deficit against Elizaveta Volodko of UC Santa Barbara on Court 2 before charging back to take the set and, ultimately, the match. Sunday's 7-5, 6-1 victory capped a 4-0 weekend for the Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. native, who also won a pair of top-court doubles matches with partner Jada Hart. The second-ranked duo took down Kozyreva/Danielle McIntyre of Saint Mary's, 6-1, and Volodko/Amit Lev Ari of UC Santa Barbara, 6-2. The Bruins improved to 4-0 with a pair of 7-0 wins. The award marks the second such of Bolton's career and 26th all time for the UCLA women's tennis program.
UCLA VS. ILLINOIS, AT ITA INDOORS
UCLA women's tennis won its only previous match against Illinois, beating the Fighting Illini at Los Angeles Tennis Center by a 7-2 score in 2000. The Bruins dropped just two sets across their nine finished matches. UCLA won its only ITA Indoors championship at Charlottesville, Va. in 2012, when it blanked Duke in the final. Three of the second-seeded Bruins' four matches played in the tournament ended in a shutout. Last year, in Seattle, eighth-seeded UCLA edged South Carolina before falling to North Carolina in the quarterfinals.
FALL RECAP
Bolton and Hart completed the fall as doubles champions at the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in Newport Beach, Calif. The pair won five matches in five days, including a 6-4, 6-3 defeat of top-ranked Anna Rogers and Alana Smith of NC State in the final. Forbes and Goulak also had standout falls for the Bruins, posting singles records of 12-2 and 10-2, respectively. Forbes went 6-2 versus nationally-ranked opponents, including a 7-6(3), 6-2 victory over Hart in the final round of the ITA Southwest Regional Championships. Forbes and Goulak also teamed to win the Regionals doubles title, defeating the UCLA combination of Altick and Taylor Johnson, 6-3, 6-4, in the final. Forbes/Goulak went 6-1 in the fall, while Bolton/Hart went 8-2 with three wins over nationally-ranked opponents.
IN THE RANKINGS
UCLA remained at No. 4 in the Oracle ITA team rankings after its ITA Kickoff Weekend wins, it was announced Wednesday, Jan. 29. Released this week was the second installment of the Tennis Channel/USTA Top 25, which saw the Bruins rise to No. 4 after starting fifth. Early-season success has Bolton/Hart at No. 2 in the doubles rankings, announced Wednesday. On the singles side, Forbes (No. 5), Bolton (14) and Hart (16) are all slotted in the top 20. Goulak is No. 112 after starting the season at a career-best No. 99.
2018-19 IN REVIEW
The Bruins made a return trip to the NCAA Championships quarterfinal round, defeating each of its first three tournament opponents by a 4-0 score. UCLA's lineup featured four All-Americans, including the NCAA doubles champion pair of seniors Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield. The duo defied the odds en route to the program's seventh title, winning three third-set tiebreakers and upsetting the top-seeded tandem. Bolton and Hart also shined, with each earning a spot on the All-Pac-12 First Team. Bolton, who racked up a team-high 28 singles wins, was named Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year.
WHO'S BACK
In sophomore Bolton (28 wins), junior Altick (19) and redshirt senior Hart (19), UCLA returns its top three singles winners from 2018-19. The tandem of Bolton and Hart, meanwhile, led all Bruin combinations in doubles victories with 31. Altick and sophomore Johnson also shined in doubles play, winning their final nine decisions en route to a 13-1 record. They went 12-1 on Court 3. Johnson additionally posted an 11-10 record in singles play, including a 5-2 mark on Court 5. Also back is junior Sophie Bendetti.
WHO'S GONE
Andrews and Broomfield closed their UCLA careers with a bang, winning the NCAA doubles championship. Andrews also posted a 14-6 singles record as the Bruins' most frequent Court 6 player, while Broomfield registered an 18-11 mark and held the No. 3 spot most often. Both earned postseason accolades, as Andrews was named the ITA Southwest Region Most Improved Senior and Broomfield was honored as the region's Senior Player of the Year. Also gone are Alaina Miller, who racked up 70 singles wins and 72 doubles triumphs during her UCLA career and had 15 decisions on Court 4 in 2019, and Katie LaFrance.
NEWCOMERS
Forbes and Vagramov are Blue-Chip talents, ranked as high as Nos. 2 and 9, respectively, according to TennisRecruting.net. Forbes, from Raleigh, N.C., earned entry into the 2019 US Open main draw by capturing the Girls' 18 doubles title at the USTA Billie Jean King National Championships. She also played in the event's junior tournament in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Caroline Goldberg, a multiple-time participant in the USTA Billie Jean King National Championships (2017, 2018) and Easter Bowl (2014, 2016, 2017, 2019), led Palisades Charter HS to success in her two seasons as a Dolphin. Rounding out the list of newcomers is Goulak, who transferred from Georgia in June. The Oak Park, Calif. native posted a singles record of 21-11 and a doubles mark of 20-13 in two seasons with the Bulldogs.
HEAD COACH STELLA SAMPRAS WEBSTER
Head coach Stella Sampras Webster is in her 24th season at the helm of the UCLA women's tennis program, compiling an impressive overall record of 445-165 (.730). She is the second-longest-tenured active coach at UCLA, behind men's tennis head coach Billy Martin. Sampras Webster has guided her alma mater to NCAA championships in 2008 and 2014, the first two in program history. Her teams have finished top-10 nationally in 20 of her 23 seasons and in the top five 14 times. Three doubles tandems have won NCAA titles under Sampras Webster's tutelage, including Andrews and Broomfield in 2019.
Players Mentioned
