UCLA
Loyola Marymount
Women's Tennis Hosts Loyola Marymount Wednesday in Opener
January 23, 2023 | Women's Tennis
The 16th-ranked UCLA women's tennis team opens the dual-match portion of its 2022-23 season on both coasts this week, starting at home Wednesday against Loyola Marymount and finishing on the campus of Miami (Fla.) for ITA Kickoff Weekend. The midweek clash of the Bruins and Lions from Los Angeles Tennis Center begins at 1:30 p.m. PT. UCLA then hits the road for Coral Gables, Fla., where it is scheduled to meet No. 22 Iowa State Saturday at 11 a.m. PT. A matchup with No. 11 Miami (Fla.) or FIU follows Sunday.
FOLLOW LIVE
Fans unable to attend home UCLA women's tennis matches in person can still follow live. Live streaming and live scoring will be available for all matches played at Los Angeles Tennis Center HERE. Live results from the Neil Schiff Tennis Center will be available throughout ITA Kickoff Weekend HERE.
LAST TIME OUT
UCLA played its final contests before the start of the dual-match season at the 20th Freeman Memorial Championships on the campus of UNLV Jan. 13-15. In addition to the Bruins and host Rebels, No. 8 Stanford, No. 10 Pepperdine, No. 13 Oklahoma State and No. 18 Florida were in the field. Elise Wagle had the standout performance for UCLA, winning her singles draw. Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer, Vanessa Ong and Sasha Vagramov each prevailed in consolation play.
UCLA VS. โฆ
UCLA has an all-time record of 26-1 versus Loyola Marymount. LMU picked up its lone victory in the Bruins' 2022 dual-match opener. UCLA collected the doubles point without a loss, but the Lions answered prevailing in each of the first four completed singles contests. The Bruins got two singles wins after the decision was clinched, making the final score 4-3. UCLA is 12-4 against Miami (Fla.). The programs most recently met at the 2015 ITA Indoors event in Charlottesville, Va., where the Bruins triumphed 4-0 over the Hurricanes. UCLA has never posted a result versus Iowa State or FIU.
FALL RECAP
Bruins made appearances at six events, including two national ones, during the fall. There were two championship performances, as Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle teamed to win the ITA Southwest Regional Championships doubles title in San Diego, while the combination of Vanessa Ong and Sasha Vagramov took the Dennis Rizza Classic top prize in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif. Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer, who was the top singles performer at the Women of Troy Invitational, collected a team-high 11 singles wins. Hance, Ava Catanzarite and Fangran Tian each beat three nationally-ranked opponents. Hance also made the singles final round at the ITA Southwest Regionals.
IN THE RANKINGS
UCLA is slotted at No. 16 in the ITA Preseason Top 25 Coaches Poll, released Jan. 18. The latest singles rankings came out Nov. 16, 2022 and feature four Bruins in career-best positions. Leading the way is Ava Catanzarite, who debuted at No. 42, with Kimmi Hance just behind her at No. 46. Freshmen Fangran Tian (94) and Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer (120) made their first-career appearances. The tandem of Hance and Elise Wagle rose to No. 11 on the doubles list after claiming the ITA Southwest Regional Championships top prize.
2021-22 IN REVIEW
The 2021-22 UCLA women's tennis team went 13-7, finishing second in the Pac-12 with a 7-1 record. The Bruins advanced past Arkansas in the NCAA Championships first round, but were outlasted by host Oklahoma State in a 4-2 second-round decision. Elysia Bolton and Abbey Forbes qualified for the NCAA singles draw, while the duo of Bolton and Elise Wagle made the doubles draw. Bolton advanced to the singles second round. Forbes (First Team), Bolton (Second Team) and Kimmi Hance (Honorable Mention) received All-Conference honors from the Pac-12. Forbes was also tabbed the ITA Southwest Region's recipient of the Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship award.
WHO'S NEW?
Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer and Fangran Tian make up UCLA's freshman class. Lutkemeyer (Irvine, Calif.), a Blue Chip recruit according to TennisRecruiting.net, was the No. 1 player in her class during 2020 and 2021. She took the singles championship at the 2021 PTT Newport Beach, Calif. Women's $25K Hard 2 event. On the junior level, Lutkemeyer collected the Girls' 16 singles crown at the 2018 USTA International Spring Championships in Carson, Calif. Tian (Beijing, China) won the Girls' singles title at the 2019 Australian Open Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-Off event, earning wild-card entry into the 2020 Australian Open Junior Championships. She also earned a spot in the 2019 Roland-Garros Junior Championships singles draw.
MARSHALL JOINS COACHING STAFF
An acclaimed performance coach for many of the world's top professional tennis players, volunteer assistant coach Rodney Marshall is new to head coach Stella Sampras Webster's staff in 2022-23. Marshall joined the Bruins after spending the past five years in Orlando, Fla., where he worked with standout Americans Madison Keys, Caty McNally and Alison Riske-Armitraj. He has overseen strength and conditioning, nutrition and injury prevention for Keys, who finished 2022 with a WTA singles ranking of No. 11. From 2009-2018, Marshall served as lead national strength and conditioning coach for USTA Player Development, spearheading strength and conditioning efforts for top American players out of the National Training Centers in Orlando and Carson, Calif. He also assisted with nutrition, sports medicine and injury prevention. Marshall's time at the USTA also afforded him the opportunity to manage strength and conditioning programs for multiple United States Davis Cup teams under captains Patrick McEnroe and Jim Courier. He has also aided in the development of numerous top-100 American women, including, but not limited to, Claire Liu, Christina McHale and Sloane Stephens.
BRUINS ON TOUR
Ena Shibahara earned her first Grand Slam championship in 2022, teaming with Wesley Koolhof to seize the mixed doubles title at Roland-Garros. She also reached her first women's doubles semifinal round last year alongside Shuko Aoayama. Shibahara climbed to a career-best No. 4 position in the WTA's doubles rankings in March 2022. Catherine Harrison also had a standout 2022, making her Grand Slam singles and doubles debuts. She advanced through singles qualifying at Wimbledon and continued her success with a first-round win. Harrison and partner Ulrikke Eikeri made a doubles second-round appearance at Roland-Garros and the pair went on to accomplish the same feat at Wimbledon and the US Open. Harrison also collected her first WTA title last year, partnering with Sabrina Santamaria to prevail at the Monterrey Open in Mexico. The following Bruins in the professional ranks achieved career-high WTA singles rankings in 2022: Harrison (No. 69), Robin Anderson (137), Elysia Bolton (230) and Chanelle van Nguyen (350).
HEAD COACH STELLA SAMPRAS WEBSTER
Head coach Stella Sampras Webster is in her 27th season at the helm of the UCLA women's tennis program, compiling an impressive overall record of 488-178 (.733). 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 21 of her 25 completed seasons and in the top five 15 times. Three doubles pairs have won NCAA titles under Sampras Webster's tutelage, most recently Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield in 2019.
Players Mentioned
