This weekend will be one of many challenges to come for the UCLA women's tennis team as they travel to Nevada to compete in the Las Vegas Classic.
The Bruins will have a lineup that varies tremendously from the one they became familiar with last season.
After the Bruins lost to crosstown rival USC in the third-round of last year's national championships, they were stricken with the news that their No. 1 player, Daniela Bercek, would be transferring to Duke to play for the Blue Devils.
The departure leaves sophomore Riza Zalameda with the responsibility of taking over the top spot after making a surprising run in last year's NCAA Singles Championships, in which she reached the semifinals.
"Being a second-year is very good for my position, because playing as a freshman, playing at the top rank was very hard," Zalameda said. 'This year, I'm really excited to be playing at the top."
After the No. 1 position, though, nothing is set in stone. In fact, nothing is quite set at all.
"I think it's going to be really open this year, especially on the bottom," Zalameda said. "As far as 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 we're not sure yet. I think Vegas will determine that."
Fortunately, the gaps in the lineup are not due to a lack of talent, but rather to high competition amongst the remainder of the team.
"We're just a really deep team," coach Stella Sampras Webster said. "There's no superstar or anything like that. Everyone can play.
All the Bruins will be looking to do just that this weekend, in hopes of making a lasting impression on Sampras Webster.
"Everyone's so good that it's just going to be one of my hardest decisions - to figure out the lineup," said Sampras Webster, who is entering her 10th year as the Bruins' coach. "Hopefully, this weekend someone will stand out and step up and it will be easier."
And when it comes to doubles, the Bruins find themselves in the same predicament with the loss of Sarah Gregg to graduation and the transfer of Bercek. In their places are two freshmen, Ashley Joelson and Anna Victoria Lind, who hope to make an impact on the young Bruin team.
Joelson was the No. 1 ranked player in the USTA Girls' 18s Singles Rankings, and Lind comes from Sweden, where she had much experience playing in junior tournaments.
"Hopefully, we'll see something that will stand out which will help us find the right combinations, but right now it's up in the air," Sampras Webster said.
"We may struggle at the beginning of our season a little, but I think once we find our set teams, we've got a lot of talented doubles players that will do well," she added.
This weekend's main objective for the Bruins will be to gain more match experience against several top-tier teams, similar to those they will be matched-up against in the Pac-10.
“We are a young team and we don't have all the experience compared to Stanford and USC, but we're going to just try to stay positive the whole time," Zalameda said. "We want to get as many matches as we can."
"Hopefully, we'll have a lot of luck this year."
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