OJAI, Calif. – Washington was much improved from two weeks ago in its rematch with the Cardinal today, but top-seeded Stanford still got the best of the Huskies in the Pac-12 Championships by a 4-0 final that was much closer than the score indicates. The doubles point came down to the wire, then four singles matches went into third sets, but the Dawgs couldn’t quite make the first domino fall.
The 23rd-ranked Huskies (17-8) will now await their postseason path as they can expect to earn an NCAA at-large bid during the Selection Show, coming up this Monday, May 1, at 3 p.m. Pacific time on NCAA.com.
Today was a much tighter match than the first meeting at Stanford two weeks back when the Cardinal posted a 6-1 win and only freshman Erika Matsuda took sets in singles. Today the Dawgs were close on every court. Even Stanford’s two straight set wins could have gone either way. 24th-ranked Alexandra Yepifanova defeated 112th-ranked Hikaru Sato at the No. 1 spot, 6-4, 7-5, and 83rd-ranked Alexis Blokhina narrowly avoided a third set against Jennifer Kerr with a 6-4, 7-6 (5) win at No. 4 singles.
Sarah-Maude Fortin, Astrid Olsen, and Erika Matsuda all lost their first sets but won the second, and Melissa Sakar won her first set and dropped her second, so the Huskies had a path to victory that required four third set wins. Fortin was at 5-5 in her third set with 18th-ranked Connie Ma at No. 2 singles, with Ma having saved a match point. Matsuda was at 3-3 in her third against Valencia Xu, and Sakar was just starting her third set at No. 6 with Sara Choy, but the match was ended at No. 3 singles where 43rd-ranked Angelica Blake pulled away in set three against Olsen for a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 win that clinched it.
In doubles play, Kerr and Olsen jumped out to a 4-0 lead at the No. 2 spot, then gave up four games back to Stanford’s Choy/Yepifanova, before turning the momentum again and winning the next two for a 6-4 win. But Stanford had a 6-2 win on court three over Fortin and Zehra Suko to even it up. At the top court, Sato and Matsuda rallied from 0-3 down to get to 4-5 against 14th-ranked Blake/Blokhina, and got a deciding point chance that could have tied it, but the Cardinal pair won that point for the 6-4 win and the doubles point went to Stanford.
Washington Women’s Tennis
Pac-12 Championships
April 28, 2023
Ojai, Calif. | Weil Tennis Academy
Semifinals
4-seed (#23) Washington – 0
1-seed (#8) Stanford – 4
Singles
1….
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