SAN FRANCISCO – Kimmi Hance of the UCLA women’s tennis team was selected Pac-12 Player of the Week for the week of April 17-23, the conference announced Tuesday.
Hance and the Bruins ended the regular season with a bang, outlasting USC 4-3 while overtaking their crosstown rival in the Pac-12 standings entering postseason play. Hance was the last player standing in the April 21 win, coming all the way back to defeat Snow Han 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 and set off a celebration on Court 2.
Hance and partner Elise Wagle also clinched the doubles point against the Trojans, beating the 39th-ranked combination of Han and Naomi Cheong 6-3 on the top court while extending their winning stream to seven. Earlier in the week, Hance was again victorious on the singles and doubles courts, completing her day with a 6-3, 6-2 result over Kelly Leung of UC San Diego on Court 1 (April 18).
With UCLA’s 5-2 win versus the Tritons, head coach Stella Sampras Webster secured the 500th victory of her illustrious career. The Bruins won seven of their final eight regular-season matches.
The Pac-12 Player of the Week honor represents the second of Hance’s career. She was previously recognized for the week of March 13-19, during which UCLA beat USC in non-conference play. The Bruins have collected four of the awards in 2023, with Fangran Tian (April 10-16) and Sasha Vagramov (March 6-12) also each receiving acclaim. UCLA now has 40 all-time weekly accolades from the conference and is the only program with more than three this season.
ALSO NOMINATED: Alexandra Yepifanova, STAN; Kaila Barksdale, UTAH; Hikaru Sato, WASH.
2023 PAC-12 WOMEN’S TENNIS PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Week | Player |
Jan. 17 | Maxine Murphy, WSU |
Jan. 24 | Madison Sieg, USC |
Jan. 30 | Alexandra Yepifanova, STAN |
Feb. 7 | Midori Castillo-Meza, ARIZ |
Feb. 14 | Hikaru Sato, WASH |
Feb. 21 | Ares Teixido Garcia, ORE |
Feb. 24 | Hikaru Sato, WASH |
March 7 | Astrid Olsen, WASH |
March 14 | Sasha Vagramov, UCLA |
March 21 | Kimmi Hance, UCLA |
March 28 | Alexandra Yepifanova, STAN |
April 4 | Connie Ma, STAN |
April 11 | Antonia Balzert, COLO |
April 18 | Fangran Tian, UCLA |
April 25 | Kimmi… |
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