The UCSB women’s tennis team (0-1) opened up its season yesterday with a loss against No. 5 UCLA (1-0), who swept the Gauchos 7-0.

UCSB, which finished its 2012-2013 season with an overall record of 15-9, greatly struggled against the Bruins throughout singles and doubles play. In singles play, UCLA completed the sweep over the Gauchos, beating all six starters.

Starting number one singles for the Gauchos, junior April Scatliffe faced junior Chanelle Van Nguyen of UCLA, who is ranked No. 9 in the country for individual starters. Scatliffe ultimately fell to Van Nguyen 6-0, 6-1. UCSB was familiar with the power behind the UCLA women’s tennis team coming into the match.

“UCLA is one of the toughest competitors in college, which is why they are top five in the nation, so we expected them to bring their ‘A’ game and they did,” Scatliffe said. “They have an aggressive game style and make very few errors making it difficult to capitalize on the opportunities we had.”

The same theme followed in doubles play against UCLA in yesterday’s match. The number one doubles match saw sophomore Catherine Harrison / sophomore Kyle McPhillips of UCLA defeat senior Kiersten Meehan / Scatliffe of UCSB 6-1. The Gauchos came to play against the Bruins, but the skill level just did not add up for UCSB.

“As a team, we have been trying to improve our aggressiveness and focus during important points for our matches. We have been doing a lot of specific point play during practice which require a certain amount of shots to be hit in a specific area, which helps with our focus and shot selection tremendously,” Scatliffe said. “We also do drills that are high in intensity and encourage little or no errors for an extended amount of playing time.”

Although the Gauchos start the season with a loss, they look to bounce back with their home opener this Sunday against San Francisco. The match is set to begin at 11 a.m.

A version of this article appeared on page 10 of January 22, 2013’s print edition of The Daily Nexus.