What’s Bruin: Women’s Tennis and Softball Continue to Roll

What’s Bruin this Friday morning?

UCLA Women’s Tennis

In NCAA Tournament play, sophomore Ena Shibahara defeated No. 31 Marianna Petrei of Idaho, 6-2, 6-4. She has now won all of her sets in NCAA singles play, and will move on to the Round of 16 to face Pepperdine’s Ashley Lahey. The Bruins suffered a pair of losses, with No. 33-ranked singles player Jada Hart falling to No. 27 Luisa Stefani in the Round of 32. In doubles play, Hart and parter Terri Fleming fell to Gabriela Knutson and Miranda Ramirez of Syracuse, 6-2, 3-6, 10-7.

UCLA Women’s Basketball

Tasha Brown, the newest addition to the Women’s Basketball staff, will take on the role of assistant coach. She replaces replaces Jenny Huth, who was named head coach at Northern Colorado on May 1. Brown will assume her coaching duties as of May 29.

Brown was an assistant coach at Rice University during the 2017-2018 season, and spent the previous five seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Cincinnati. Prior to Cincinnati, Brown spent four seasons as the head coach at Western Michigan University, where she produced an All-Mid-American Conference selection and a MAC All-Academic honoree each year.

Welcome, Coach Brown!

UCLA Men’s Tennis

Martin Redlicki was named the ITA Senior Player of the Year. Redlicki is currently in the hunt for the NCAA Men’s Singles Championship as the tournament’s No. 1 seed, and has had an amazing 2018 season. After regular season play, he held a singles record of 25-6 (16-4 in dual matches). Of those 25 wins, 20 came versus ranked opponents. He now has 200 career victories across singles and doubles.

Austin Rapp and Keegan Smith also received Southwest Region recognition. Rapp was awarded with the ITA Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship Award, while Smith was honored with Rookie of the Year. Redlicki was also named Southwest Region Player of the Year.

UCLA Softball

With the Super Regionals looming, Rachel Garcia received a major honor this week, as she was named the NCAA Softball Player of the Year.

Congratulations, Rachel, and good luck to the entire softball team as they take on conference rivals Arizona in Super Regionals this weekend!

Go Bruins!