The UCLA women’s tennis team, currently ranked eighth in the nation with a 4-2 record, will travel to Malibu to face No. 14 Pepperdine on Friday at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center. The match is scheduled for a 2 p.m. PT start and will be available for live viewing and scoring through Pepperdine’s streaming service (https://pepperdinewaves.com/sports/2018/8/7/playsight.aspx).
UCLA enters the contest following consecutive wins by a combined score of 13-1. In their most recent outing, they defeated San Diego 6-1 at home, with Olivia Center clinching the victory after securing her singles match. Teammates Kate Fakih and Ahmani Guichard also contributed two wins each during that event.
Historically, UCLA leads its series against Pepperdine with a record of 61-22, having last beaten them 5-2 on February 26, 2025.
In individual rankings as of February 19, Mayu Crossley is listed at No. 49 in singles while Kate Fakih holds the No. 122 spot; Center and Fakih are ranked No. 62 in doubles.
Several Bruins have received recognition this season: “Crossley Earns Sweep of Big Ten Weekly Awards – Feb. 4,” “Guichard Named a Big Ten Women’s Tennis Player to Watch – Jan. 5,” “Crossley Earns Big Ten Freshman of the Week Award – Nov. 17, 2025,” and “Guichard Voted Big Ten Player of the Week to Start New Season – Sept. 24, 2025.”
During fall competition, Ahmani Guichard led UCLA with six singles wins and five doubles victories while freshman Mayu Crossley qualified for the NCAA Championship singles tournament after reaching the ITA West Sectional Championships semifinals.
Looking back at last season (2024-25), UCLA finished with an overall record of 18-9 (10-3 in conference play) and reached the round of sixteen in NCAA Championship play by defeating Vanderbilt on their home court in a close match.
Returning players include Kate Fakih and Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer—each bringing more than fifty combined singles and doubles wins from last year—and sophomore Olivia Center who partnered with Fakih to reach the NCAA Championship doubles final as freshmen.
Newcomers this season are freshmen Kayla Chung (Stanton, Calif.), Mayu Crossley (Tokyo), and Rona Rugara (Johannesburg). Chung’s achievements include winning Girls’16 doubles at the Easter Bowl; Crossley played all junior Grand Slams and was ranked as high as fifth among ITF juniors; Rugara collected nine ITF junior titles over two years.
Former Bruin Ena Shibahara has seen continued success professionally: her highest WTA singles ranking improved from No.503 in early 2024 to No.116 by 2025; she made her Grand Slam main draw debut at the US Open in 2024 and reached her first WTA Tour quarterfinal at Austin’s ATX Open last year.
This season marks head coach Stella Sampras Webster’s thirtieth leading UCLA women’s tennis—a tenure highlighted by an overall coaching record of 546–203 (.729) since taking over her alma mater’s program. She has guided teams to national championships twice—in 2008 and 2014—and won three conference titles under her leadership: “Sampras Webster collected the 500th win of her illustrious career when the Bruins defeated UC San Diego on April 18, 2023.” Her teams have finished among college tennis’ top ten nationally twenty-three times out of twenty-eight completed seasons.
