Though it was just the first two rounds of an individual Pac-10 tournament, the domination of a few select schools was made quite clear.
Meanwhile, the lack of a presence of women from a select number of schools made it obvious which teams were often taken lightly during the dual-match season.
National powerhouse Stanford had three players of its undefeated squad make it into the quarterfinals of the Women’s Pac-10 Championships, whereas schools such as the Washington and Oregon schools will have no representation in today’s main draw.
The lone Bruin remaining in the main draw of this year’s tournament is senior captain Laura Gordon, who will be pitted against the nation’s No. 4 seed, Alice Barnes. Barnes defeated Gordon’s teammate Alex McGoodwin 6-1, 6-1 in the first round.
“She’s a good player and we split the two matches when we met,” Gordon said. “Hopefully if I play well, I can dictate the points, and if I can dictate the points, it should put me in a good position.”
UCLA sophomore Tracy Lin also lost in the first round, where she found herself in a three-set battle with No. 2 USC’s Amanda Fink. After capturing the first set, Lin lost a second set in a tie-breaker and eventually lost the match in the third set, 3-6, 7-6, 6-3.
Sophomore Riza Zalameda was the only other Bruin besides Gordon to make it past the first round as she defeated Washington State’s Ekaterina Burduli 6-4, 6-1 before losing to Theresa Logar of No. 1 Stanford 7-6(5), 7-5.
“I think I just made too many errors,” Zalameda said. “I felt good about how I played, but I guess it just wasn’t my day.”
Though the Bruins didn’t fare so well in the main draw of the Pac-10 Championships, not a single team member entered in the Invitational Women’s Pac-10 Singles draw was eliminated on Thursday.
Freshman Anna-Viktoria Lind had a fairly simple first day, defeating Allison Rainey of Washington 6-1, 6-1 in the first round before continuing her dominance against Arizona State’s Rebecca Rankin, winning the match 6-4, 6-4.
Lind’s fellow freshman teammate Ashley Joelson didn’t have to worry about playing two matches, receiving a first round bye as the draw’s second seed. Nonetheless, Joelson displayed no signs of being cold against Judy DeVera of USC, winning with ease 6-2, 6-1.
Meanwhile, sophomore Elizabeth Lumpkin found herself in quite a struggle in the opening day of the championships, winning a pair of three-set matches to advance to the quarterfinals, where she will meet Jessica Nguyen of Stanford, who is the invitational draw’s top seed.
If Lumpkin can pull off an upset over the freshman, who is ranked No. 76 in the nation, and if Lind continues her hot streak against Marion Ravelojaona, the two Bruins will bump heads with one another in the semifinals.
Today will also mark the beginning of doubles play, in which Gordon and Zalameda hope they can clinch a berth into the NCAA Individual Championships with a solid showing against several of the nation’s top doubles tandems.
“This tournament is a chance to solidify our spot in the national tournament,” Gordon said.
“We’re just really psyched to go out there and see how good we are compared to these teams here,” Zalameda added.
MEN’S TENNIS: Aaron Yovan and Mathieu Dehaine were the only two Bruins to advance to the second round of the main draw of the Pac-10 men’s tennis championships, held this weekend at Libbey Park in Ojai. UCLA’s top two players, No. 1-ranked Ben Kohlloeffel and Haythem Abid, are not competing in singles.
Yovan defeated Arizona State’s TJ Bellama, 6-2, 7-5, while Dehaine advanced with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Arizona’s Roger Matalonga. Yovan will face top-seeded Conor Niland of Cal (ranked No. 4 in the nation) in today’s second round, while Dehaine will play Stanford’s James Wan.
UCLA’s Philipp Gruendler and Chris Surapol both lost their first round matches. Surapol’s match went the ultimate distance, and USC’s Kaes Van’t Hof emerged with a 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 7-6(5) victory.
Doubles play begins today. Kohlloeffel and Gruendler, the nation’s No. 2-ranked doubles team, will face Adam Loucks and Garrett Snyder of USC in the first round. Dehaine and Jeremy Drean open doubles play against Oregon’s Thomas Bieri and Eric Pickard.
With reports by David Regan, Bruin Sports senior staff