Cardinal Drops Marathon – Stanford Cardinal

STANFORD, Calif. – No. 5 Stanford dropped a 4-3 marathon to No. 17 UCLA on Sunday afternoon at Taube Family Tennis Center.

In a match that started at noon and finished at 4:40 p.m., the Bruins’ Kimmi Hance saved two match points against Connie Ma and ultimately prevailed on court two, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5) to win it. The loss was Stanford’s second of the season, first outdoors, and snapped the Cardinal’s 21-match winning streak against Pac-12 opponents in all competitions. Stanford hadn’t lost to a conference foe since April 16, 2015 at No. 7 California (5-2).

The Hance/Ma match had it all. Hance took the first set, but Ma battled back, served to forced a tiebreak, and won the tiebreak, 7-3. The pair stayed on serve in the third until trading breaks after it was 5-5 to set up yet another tiebreak. Hance ended it with a backhand winner down the line to snap Ma’s individual 12-match winning streak.

The Cardinal had to fight back from a 3-0 hole and nearly pulled off the reverse sweep. UCLA took the doubles point and then won in singles on courts one and four. Stanford evened things up with wins by Valencia Xu on six, Alexandra Yepifanova on three and Katherine Hui on five. Yepifanova beat No. 72 Biana Fernandez after dropping the first set, 6-2, ripping off 6-1, 6-0 wins in sets two and three.

Stanford is back in action when it hosts No. 3 Pepperdine on Friday at 1:30 p.m.

No. 17 UCLA 4 – No. 5 Stanford 3
 
DOUBLES
1) Tian Fangran/Elise Wagle (UCLA) d. #52 Connie Ma/Alexandra Yepifanova (STAN) 6-2
2) #80 Kimmi Hance/Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer (UCLA) d. #67 Angelica Blake/Alexis Blokhina (STAN) 7-6 (6)
3) Katherine Hui/Valencia Xu (STAN) d. Bianca Fernandez/Ahmani Guichard (UCLA) 6-4
Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2
 
SINGLES
1) #59 Tian Fangran (UCLA) d. #26 Angelica Blake (STAN) 6-0, 6-4
2) #89 Kimmi Hance (UCLA) d. #13 Connie Ma (STAN) 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5)
3) #27 Alexandra Yepifanova (STAN) d. #72 Bianca Fernandez (UCLA) 2-6, 6-1, 6-0
4) Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer (UCLA) d. #92 Alexis Blokhina (STAN) 6-1, 6-3
5) Katherine Hui (STAN) d. Elise Wagle (UCLA) 7-5, 6-4
6) #103 Valencia Xu (STAN) d. Ahmani Guichard (UCLA) 6-3, 6-1
Order of Finish: 4, 1, 6, 3, 5, 2