Upcoming Pac-12 games to test women’s tennis’ doubles play

Daily Bruin The real test for UCLA women’s tennis starts this weekend.
After dropping three straight matches, the No. 21 Bruins (6-4) will only face Pac-12 opponents for the rest of the season, starting with the No. 16 Stanford Cardinal (7-1) on Friday.
“We don’t really have much time to think about (the past),” said junior Terri Fleming. “We have two really tough matches coming up this weekend, back to back.”
[Related: Women’s tennis grapples with maintaining late-game momentum]
The Bruins were fifth in the Pac-12 last year, their lowest finish since 2005, after posting a 6-3 conference record. The four teams that finished above UCLA, No. 7 California, Stanford, Arizona State and USC along with No. 25 Washington will be the Bruins’ main challengers for the Pac-12 title this season.
One of the keys for UCLA will be to capture the doubles point – the Bruins have dropped the point in all but one of their losses, but won it in each of their six victories this year. Last season, UCLA failed to win the doubles point in two of its three conference losses, the exception being a 5-1 decision at Stanford where the teams didn’t play doubles.
Before last weekend, the Bruins had tried four different doubles combinations this season, but only went 7-6 at courts two and three. Against Baylor, the team decided to switch all three of their pairings, putting Fleming and redshirt freshman Jada Hart at court one, sophomores Gabby Andrews and Alaina Miller at court two and freshman Ena Shibahara and junior Kristin Wiley at court three.
The decision worked, as the Bruins received wins at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles to secure the point.
[Related: Women’s tennis falls to Baylor 4-3 despite fruitful doubles lineup change]
While the element of surprise was on UCLA’s side, the players also practice often with different doubles partners, which helped ...


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