UCLA women’s tennis player Jada Hart will utilize extra year of NCAA eligibility

Jada Hart put the phone down and screamed.

Pure joy pulsed through her as her first reaction was to run around her family’s home in Colton.

“What is wrong with you?” her dad joked from another room.

Hart couldn’t help but be ecstatic.

UCLA women’s tennis coach Stella Sampras Webster had just informed the redshirt senior she had been approved to return next year after the coronavirus pandemic had stripped away her senior season this spring.

“It was relieving at first. I was definitely holding my breath when she was letting me know they were actually approving it,” Hart said. “Then it was just excitement because I was actually going to have that extra year to come back. I was really happy.”

After getting her coach’s call Wednesday, Hart released an announcement the next day in a letter to Bruins fans the following day on the UCLA Athletics website titled “My Decision: Jada Hart.” She is the first UCLA spring-sport athlete to announce their decision of utilizing the NCAA’s approval of allowing spring-sport athletes an extra year of eligibility due to the canceled spring season this year.

UCLA has given its spring-sport senior athletes the choice to come back if they can make it work academically. While Hart completed her undergraduate political science degree requirements in March, she is applying to grad school for the 2020-2021 school year to be eligible to return to the women’s tennis team.

“This was a special season,” Hart said. “There was so much unfinished business that we still have to finish. I missed out on opportunities of having a senior day, a senior salute and just the way the season ended was not the way I was anticipating. … I wanted to be able to do it and finish on my own terms.”

Just over a month ago, the tears falling on Hart’s face weren’t of joy but of heartbreak. Hart was in her apartment in Westwood when she learned the 2020 spring season was canceled due to COVID-19. She sat on her bed crying, believing she had had her final match as a Bruin without even knowing it.

Of all the seasons, she knew this year would have been special.

The Bruins were on their way to one of the best seasons in program history. Ranked No. 3 nationally in the Oracle/ITA rankings and with a 12-1 overall record, they were only two matches into Pac-12 play when the season was cut short.

Hart was UCLA’s No. 1 singles player. In doubles, she and sophomore Elysia Bolton were ranked No. 1 in the country by the conclusion of the season. UCLA had reached the final round of the Oracle ITA National Team Indoor Championship tournament in February for the first time since 2014.

Additionally, the Bruins defeated Stanford 4-1 on March 7 to snap the Cardinal’s 38-match regular-season conference win streak and give UCLA its first win at Stanford since 2014.

“We had a very special group of girls this year and we were definitely a contender to win the (national championship) this year,” Hart said. “We were well on our way in the middle of conference to getting a Pac-12 title, which was something I was really looking forward to doing.”

After the NCAA announced its decision to extend eligibility, Hart took a week to weigh out the options with her family. The two biggest factors in her decision to return to UCLA included the postponement of this summer’s professional tennis tours and the uncertainty surrounding the sports broadcasting career she had hoped to pursue after college.

Hart was working on setting up an internship with the Tennis Channel this spring, but had to let go of the idea as the coronavirus pandemic worsened.

“I didn’t want to take the risk of leaving college and then not doing anything for the next nine months to a year,” Hart said.

But through all the certainty surrounding her professional tennis career and the job market, Hart knew she wasn’t done being a Bruin.

So, in what was supposed to be a senior send-off for Hart via a Zoom call Friday, she surprised her teammates with her decision. She was going to do what she could to come back.

The Bruins recently gathered to give senior Jada Hart a virtual sendoff.

This meeting didn’t exactly go as planned.#GoBruins | @ITA_Tennis pic.twitter.com/tFW6KFuRbY

— UCLA Women's Tennis (@uclawtennis) April 23, 2020

“I’m just really lucky that I can come back and be with the same team,” Hart said. “Our chances are still just as high, maybe even higher now, to go for a national title. … I see it as another opportunity to finish my career on a high note and to actually be able to finish it the way I wanted to.”