{"id":657326,"date":"2026-05-08T08:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657326\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T08:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:29:11","slug":"ucla-womens-tennis-gears-up-to-face-georgia-in-away-super-regional-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657326\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA women\u2019s tennis gears up to face Georgia in away super regional game"},"content":{"rendered":"

A top seed puts a bullseye on any team\u2019s back.<\/p>\n

And that is where one has landed for the Bulldogs. For the Bruins, though, being the underdog with a bow eases some of the pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to have all the pressure,\u201d said coach Stella Sampras Webster. \u201cIf we can just come in and put a lot of pressure on them, we have a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCLA women\u2019s tennis (18-7, 9-4 Big Ten) will face No. 1 seed Georgia (20-5, 12-3) in the super regional round of the NCAA tournament at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Georgia.<\/p>\n

The Bruins\u2019 opening tournament rounds were both decided on the final singles court, with sophomore Olivia Center and junior Ahmani Guichard clinching in back-to-back matches. <\/p>\n

Center has logged a team-high six clinchers for the Bruins as a consistent staple of her team\u2019s singles lineup on the backcourts.<\/p>\n

Guichard has been on a run of her own, having not dropped a singles match since March 21. Her most recent win punched her team\u2019s ticket to the super regional.<\/p>\n

Georgia\u2019s path to Friday\u2019s match came with less resistance, and the championship contenders blew past Alabama State and Charlotte in consecutive sweeps.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs\u2019 season has not been all dominance, though, and the squad suffered a 4-1 loss to LSU in the SEC tournament semifinals. The bayou bust was one of Georgia\u2019s five losses on the season, including an early-season upset by then-No. 35 Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther teams have beaten them this season,\u201d Center said. \u201cAnyone can win at any moment, and just to have belief and play our games and impose ourselves when we\u2019re out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of last Saturday\u2019s match, Sampras Webster identified deuce points as an area of improvement for the Bruins \u2013 who went on to win the second round showdown with a deuce-point victory from Guichard.<\/p>\n

Winning the doubles point, which the Bruins dropped in the opening round of the tournament, also helped fuel Sampras Webster\u2019s squad to a super regional berth.<\/p>\n

\"(ChenruiJunior Ahmani Guichard readies a backhand. (Chenrui Zhang\/Daily Bruin staff)<\/p>\n

UCLA was eliminated by No. 2 seed Texas A&M in the super regional of last year\u2019s NCAA tournament. The Aggies, the then-defending national champions, bested the Bruins 4-2 in College Station, Texas.<\/p>\n

Sampras Webster\u2019s squad will once again be facing a top-seeded team boasting home court advantage. The Bruins have played the entirety of the postseason \u2013 including the Big Ten tournament \u2013 on the road, though, and are no stranger to travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people need to train, some people just need rest,\u201d Sampras Webster said. \u201cIt\u2019s just very individual \u2013 we need to try to get everyone healthy, everyone recovered from this weekend and ready to go and travel to Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recovery will likely be important for Guichard, who resorted to underhand serves in last Saturday\u2019s match while battling through an arm injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cToward the end of the season, it\u2019s important to keep our bodies healthy and our minds locked in,\u201d Guichard said. \u201cWe will probably be leaving pretty soon for the next round so we have to put this weekend behind us pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Athens should offer a slight reprieve from the 90-plus degree temperatures and thin mountain air UCLA competed in over the weekend. The Dan Magill Tennis Complex is more of the same for Georgia, though, which has played on home courts through the opening rounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A top seed puts a bullseye on any team\u2019s back. And that is where one has landed for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-657326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}