Mixed results had defined Sasha Vagramov’s final fall campaign with the blue and gold.

Across three events, the senior earned a mark of 8-9 across all matchplay and lacked a deep run to her name.

But at the tournament where she once lifted her maiden collegiate trophy, Vagramov reclaimed the throne.

Vagramov and junior Vanessa Ong of UCLA women’s tennis secured the doubles title at the Dennis Rizza Classic in Rolling Hills Estates, California, on Sunday. While assembling a 7-1 resume at the Bruins’ final stop of their fall slate, Vagramov repeated the feat she accomplished alongside then-junior Annette Goulak at the 2019 installment of the Jack Kramer Club’s annual collegiate invitational.

The only senior with multiple years of dual match starting experience, Vagramov said her uneven start to the fall was weighed down by thoughts of her final year with the blue and gold.

“Starting with being the team captain, there’s a lot of responsibilities that I’m super excited about, and I’m eager to help lead the team,” Vagramov said. “But also just the usual thoughts that every senior has about going into their last year, thinking about the future. That was sort of getting in the way of my ability to stay present in the competition.”

In the field of 15 doubles teams, four would stand between the pair of Bruins and their eventual crown.

The first three mustered a grand total of four games against them.

Vagramov and Ong were first pitted against Shakhnoza Khatamova and Camille Kiss of UC Santa Barbara, with the former pair taking advantage of early breaks en route to an 8-2 decision. The Bruins’ subsequent opponent failed to hold serve at all, as Cal Poly’s Melissa LaMette and Kim Bhunu were dished an 8-0 bagel by UCLA’s upperclassman duo.

In the semifinals, Vagramov and Ong mirrored their performance in the first round, upending Loyola Marymount’s No. 1-seeded Sofia Munera and Stefania Rogozinska-Dzik 8-2 to nab a championship berth.

Evidenced by an 0.857 winning percentage through their first 28 games, Vagramov attributed the sustained doubles dominance to familiarity with her partner.

“She’s always very grounding for me, and I think our personalities have gelled well,” Vagramov said. “This tournament, we were just very communicative. We always had a plan for every match and just went into it with a very strong mindset to win.”

The lopsided results for Vagramov and Ong eventually came to a close, as the team was pushed to a tiebreaker in the title match by No. 2 seed Carolyn Campana and Bunyawi Thamchaiwat of Pepperdine. But the tight contest didn’t continue into the deciding frame, as the Bruin tandem turned in a 8-7(7-1) performance.

“To see them play the way they did with such confidence and aggressiveness, … it was really great to see that combination work,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “We have a lot of options now, and we want to try and find three solid doubles teams that have a chance to win at each position, and I think we do.”

ITA National Fall Championships

Over 100 miles south, a sophomore duo represented UCLA at the fall’s most prestigious event.

Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle entered the doubles draw at the ITA National Fall Championships thanks to their doubles title just over a week prior at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships. The pair’s winning ways translated to the first round, when it sent California’s Erin Richardson and Makenna Thiel packing via a 6-1, 6-4 result.

It was Mary Brumfield and Selma Cadar of Maryland that snapped the hot streak for Hance and Wagle, smashing hopes of a second consecutive doubles title with a 6-4, 6-3 defeat in the round of 16. The same scoreline decided No. 98 Hance’s fate in the singles draw, this time dictated by Virginia’s No. 56 Elaine Chervinsky in the first round.

Hance did see additional match play in the back draw, where she handed a 6-1, 6-1 double-baguette defeat to No. 105 Angelica Blake of Stanford for her only singles victory of the tournament.

“I knew she was a good player, and she was ranked, so I just took the opportunity and made the most of it,” Hance said. “I just wanted to focus on being very professional and having the best attitude that I could.”

The triumph over Blake earned Hance a quarterfinal bout with North Carolina’s Anika Yarlagadda, but the sophomore was forced to retire down 0-6, 0-2. The unspecified injury was minor and will keep Hance off the courts for a week, according to Sampras Webster.

With its 2022 fall campaign now in the books, UCLA enters the holiday break with a singles title and two doubles crowns to show for it.

“We definitely have made some major leaps and bounds just with improving our confidence and proving we are a good team,” Hance said. “We belong with the top teams in the nation.”