W. tennis win washes away Pacific Tigers

W. tennis win washes away Pacific Tigers

Bruin 8-1 victory aided by six consecutive singles match
wins

By Hye Kwon

Daily Bruin Staff

Sometimes, even when you win, you really don’t win.

Ask the UCLA women’s tennis team, which pounded an undermanned
Pacific team 8-1 on Friday at the Sunset Courts, but allowed the
Tigers to escape with a moral victory.

The seventh-ranked Bruins (9-2) opened the match with six
consecutive singles wins, which solidified the team victory. That
came as no surprise to anyone, considering that UCLA was riding a
wave of confidence after the National Indoor Tournament, and
Pacific arrived in Westwood with a very modest 1-7 record.

But it was at this point that Pacific ignored the fat lady
hitting the high notes in the stands and gave UCLA all kinds of
trouble in the doubles matches.

It’s been almost a full year since the Tigers notched one of the
biggest upset victories against UCLA. The 5-3 Pacific win came as a
shock to the collegiate tennis community, and since then, the
Bruins have been sharpening their claws for a revenge against the
Tigers.

Since starting the season as the 43rd-ranked team in the nation,
Pacific made like migrating ducks and went south. In other words,
Friday’s match looked like a classic case of David and Goliath –
but without any divine intervention aiding the former.

As expected, Keri Phebus and Paige Yaroshuk beat up their
singles opponents at the No. 1 and the No. 2 spots, respectively.
Phebus hammered Pacific’s Marsa Kuurne, 6-2, 6-3, who was
undefeated at the top spot prior to last weekend. Yaroshuk worked a
mirror image, 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Bente Grina.

The rest of the UCLA squad followed suit, defeating its
opponents in straight sets. However, what the Bruins encountered
from that point was a feisty Pacific team which played like it had
nothing to lose and everything to gain in the meaningless doubles
matches that ensued.

The only UCLA team that had an easy time in doubles was Kelly
Rudolph and Anicia Mendez, who defeated Kristin Foote and Kendra
Lamb 8-2. Contrastingly, the No. 2 duo of Stephanie Chi and Brandi
Freudenberg dropped their match 5-8, and the No. 1 team of Phebus
and Yaroshuk had to go to a tie-break to garner the 9-8
victory.

With the win against Chi and Freudenberg, the Tigers’ Marcela
Sanchez and Tanya O’Neil improved their record to 4-4. Bente Grina
and Marsa Kuurne, who were repeatedly complaining at the way Phebus
and Yaroshuk made the line calls, missed out on their third victory
of the season by losing 5-7 in the tie-break.

SCOTT O/Daily Bruin

Stephanie Chi easily won her singles match against Pacific in
straight sets, but lost her doubles match.

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