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Bruin women’s tennis team escapes the Waves despite three singles losses

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By Daily Bruin Staff

April 14, 2011 1:48 a.m.

No. 6 UCLA squeaked past No. 28 Pepperdine with a 4-3 victory in Malibu, and though the score suggests a nail-biter, the match was decided before the Waves could get on the board.

Still, the Waves (11-7) gave the Bruins (17-5, 6-1 Pac-10) exactly what they expected: a hard-fought contest that saw three Bruins upset in singles play.

“(Pepperdine) made us compete and play hard,” coach Stella Sampras Webster said.

“They pushed us quite a bit. Pepperdine was very feisty and they used their homecourt crowd very well.”

The certainty of the outcome was originally cast in doubt when Pepperdine’s No. 2 doubles team of freshman Ale Granillo and redshirt junior Khunpak Issara upset UCLA’s team of junior McCall Jones and senior Noelle Hickey 8-4.

However, the Bruins eventually won the doubles point, but it took an 8-6 win on court No. 1 by freshman Courtney Dolehide and senior Andrea Remynse to do it.

“The doubles point was really big today,” Jones said. “It kind of shut (Pepperdine) down a little bit because they weren’t so excited. They were a little bit more down before singles than they would have been had they won the doubles point.”

Singles play got off to a considerably better start for UCLA, which handed the Waves three quick straight-set defeats to build up an insurmountable 4-0 lead.

Junior Carling Seguso improved her spotless singles record for the season to 13-0 by outplaying freshman Megan Moore 6-2, 6-4 on court No. 6, and senior Maya Johansson recorded a 6-3, 6-0 victory over sophomore Marie Zalameda at the No. 5 spot.

Jones clinched the match for the Bruins at the top spot with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over sophomore Arianna Colffer.

Jones is looking to rediscover her winning touch after dropping four of her last six singles matches at the No. 1 position.

“I’m starting to get my confidence back now,” Jones said. “It felt good to clinch the match for the team. Sometimes, I feel like I’ve let the team down in the past by losing at that position.”

The match took a turn for the worse from then on for the Bruins.

Pepperdine senior Anamika Bhargava toppled Hickey 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) on court No. 2 and Issara came back from a first-set deficit to upset sophomore Pamela Montez 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 4 position.

Granillo rounded things out with a topsy-turvy 6-4, 1-6 (10-7) upset win over Remynse on court No. 3, but it was not enough for the Waves.

Next up for the Bruins is a showdown with No. 14 USC (14-6, 4-3) at the Marks Tennis Stadium, in what is both teams’ final regular-season match.

The Bruins will attempt to sweep the Trojans for the second straight year, having already posted a convincing 5-2 win over their crosstown rivals at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on March 2.

“We try to go about it like it’s any other match,” Sampras Webster said. “But it is our last match, and we want to finish strong against our rival.”

Compiled by Daniel Khayat, Bruin Sports reporter.

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