UCLA
Saint Mary's
No. 4 Women's Tennis to Host Two Weekend Matches
January 30, 2020 | Women's Tennis
The No. 4 UCLA women's tennis team, fresh off earning a spot in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, welcomes Saint Mary's and UC Santa Barbara to Los Angeles Tennis Center for weekend matches. The Bruins (2-0) and Gaels (0-0, at USC on Friday) will meet Saturday at 12 p.m., PT, before hosting the Gauchos (1-2) Sunday at 11 a.m. The latter of the matches was originally scheduled for Friday. Live video and scoring from both matches will be available HERE.
LAST WEEK
UCLA locked up its spot in next week's ITA Indoors tournament, beating Minnesota and Loyola Marymount in ITA Kickoff Weekend matches at LATC. On Friday, the Bruins made quick work of the Golden Gophers in a 4-0 win. Sophomore Taylor Johnson clinched the victory in straight sets. Newcomers Abbey Forbes and Annette Goulak won their UCLA debuts without surrendering more than two games in any of the sets they played. The trio of Johnson, Forbes and Goulak also picked up doubles wins. Then, on Saturday, the Bruins recorded their second clean sweep in as many days, defeating LMU by a 4-0 score. Forbes clinched the victory. Fellow first-year player Sasha Vagramov registered the first singles and doubles wins of her dual-match career. Sophomore Elysia Bolton tallied the third singles triumph.
UCLA VS. SMC, UCSB
UCLA women's tennis is undefeated in 42 matches played against SMC (8-0) and UCSB (34-0). The Bruins most recently turned in a 4-0 road win over the Gaels on Feb. 22, 2019, as Gabby Andrews posted the clinching win. Johnson and Alaina Miller recorded the other singles victories. UCLA got matching 6-0 wins from its doubles pairs on Courts 2 and 3 to get the day started. Thirty-three days later, the Bruins registered a 4-0 home defeat of the Gauchos. Johnson and Miller again posted singles victories, with Jada Hart sealing the deal. Two 6-1 doubles triumphs, on Courts 1 and 3, gave UCLA the first point of the match.
FALL RECAP
Bolton and redshirt senior 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 junior Abi Altick and sophomore 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. Also released Wednesday was the first installment of the Tennis Channel/USTA Top 25, which placed the Bruins at No. 5. The fall success catapulted Bolton/Hart to No. 2 in the doubles rankings, announced Nov. 13. On the singles side, Forbes debuted at No. 6 and the veteran Hart joined her in the top 10 at a career high-tying No. 9. Bolton is slotted just behind her teammates at No. 14. Rounding out the list of ranked Bruins are Goulak and freshman Vagramov, who are making their first appearances in the rankings at Nos. 99 and 108, respectively.
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 Bolton (28 wins), Altick (19) and 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 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 443-165 (.729). 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
