April 4, 2012

LOS ANGELES -The No. 1-ranked UCLA women's tennis team (18-0; 5-0 Pac-12) rounds out a four-match homestand this weekend, welcoming Pac-12 opponents Arizona State and Arizona to the Los Angeles Tennis Center. Both teams are ranked just outside the ITA top 25, with Arizona checking in at No. 28 and ASU at No. 29. Action begins on Friday with UCLA facing Arizona State (10-5; 2-3 Pac-12) at 1:30 p.m. The Bruins then return to the courts the following day to host Arizona (12-6; 2-3 Pac-12) at Noon. Both Arizona and Arizona State were swept by Stanford and Cal in the Bay Area last weekend. Live stats for this weekend's matches can be found by clicking HERE. Updates can also be found on the team's twitter page @uclawtennis. There is no charge for admission to all regular season home matches at the LATC.

Friday's match features two of the top players in the country, as UCLA's sixth-ranked Robin Anderson and ASU's ninth-ranked Jacqueline Cako are scheduled to do battle at the No. 1 singles spot. It will mark the first showdown between the two players this season.

While the Arizona schools are coming off of an extremely tough weekend in the Bay Area, UCLA heads into Friday's match with victories over Washington and Oregon last week. The Bruins defeated Washington, 5-2 last Friday. UCLA was leading the match 4-0 before the Huskies notched wins at court Nos. 2 and 4. Freshman Chanelle Van Nguyen suffered her first loss in dual-match play in that contest, as she fell to Julija Lukac, 3-6, 6-3, (10-8). Van Nguyen owned a 16-0 dual-match record before that loss. UCLA dominated Oregon the following day, posting a 7-0 win over the Ducks. After winning the doubles point, the Bruins won all six matches in straight sets.

With Van Nguyen's loss against Washington, fellow freshman Kaitlin Ray is now the lone undefeated Bruin player in dual matches. Ray picked up two wins last week to improve to 25-2 overall and 17-0 in dual matches. She also owns the longest winning streak on the team at 22. Ray has not lost a singles match since October.

The Bruins have their most important weekend of the season next week, as UCLA travels to the Bay Area for matches against No. 6 Stanford and No. 9 Cal. Saturday's match at Stanford could be a battle of unbeatens, as the Cardinal (13-0; 6-0) have yet to lose this year.

ITA Rankings

Singles (March 27)
6. Robin Anderson
84. Chanelle Van Nguyen
87. Pamela Montez
97. Courtney Dolehide
103. Kaitlin Ray
105. McCall Jones
116. Skylar Morton

Doubles (March 27)
9. Dolehide/Montez
11. Anderson/Morton

Team Top 10 (April 3)
1. UCLA
2. Florida
3. Duke
4. USC
5. Georgia
6. Stanford
7. Miami
8. North Carolina
9. Cal
10. Texas

Complete ITA Rankings can be found by clicking here.