SEATTLE – UCLA women’s tennis was outlasted by Washington late in the teams’ Pac-12 opener Friday afternoon, falling by a 4-3 score at Nordstrom Tennis Center.
In a match that saw three singles contests go three sets, the Bruins (3-3, 0-1 Pac-12) ultimately could not overcome the Huskies’ early 2-0 lead. Kimmi Hance, Fangran Tian and Elise Wagle were victorious for UCLA. Melissa Sakar clinched the overall win for UW (9-3, 1-0), which also saw Jennifer Kerr and Astrid Olsen prevail in singles play.
The Huskies seized the doubles point with 6-3 wins on Courts 2 and 3. On the bottom court, Sarah Maude-Fortin and Erika Matsuda broke the serve of Vanessa Ong and Sasha Vagramov at 1-1 and 5-3 and were first to finish. Then, in the middle, Kerr and Olsen took four of the first five games versus Tian and Ava Catanzarite – including a break out of the gate – en route to the clinching victory. The Bruins’ sixth-ranked tandem of Hance and Wagle was up a break on the top court, holding a 5-4 advantage, but the match was left unfinished.
UCLA collected four initial singles sets in an effort to steer momentum in their direction. UW struck first, however, as No. 93 Kerr bested Vagramov by a 6-1, 6-4 score on Court 4. The Bruins got on the board soon after thanks to Wagle’s seventh singles wins in eight 2022-23 results. Her 6-2, 6-3 victory against Erika Matsuda cut the UCLA’s deficit in half.
Hance evened the overall score on Court 2, where she held off Fortin by a 6-1, 7-5…
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