SEATTLE – The Washington women’s tennis team (15-9, 4-5 Pac-12) fell 6-1 to the 3rd-ranked Stanford Cardinal Sunday afternoon at Quillian Tennis Stadium.
The Huskies kicked off match day by celebrating UW’s four seniors, Dariya Detkovskaya, Sarah-Maude Fortin, Astrid Olsen and Melissa Sakar.
Erika Matsuda and Detkovskaya delivered an absolutely dominant win on the second doubles court, defeating the Cardinal’s Blake and Houghton, 6-1.
It was the only doubles victory of the afternoon for the Dawgs, as the Cardinal’s Hui and Xu defeated No. 78 Sakar and Catherine Gagnon 6-2.
Stanford delivered the final blow when No. 32 Ma/Yepifanova took down No. 69 Alexia Jacobs and Olsen, 6-4.
The Huskies got off to a slow start in singles, with the first three matches to finish going in two sets each to Stanford. All three of Stanford’s top courts ranked top-35 in the nation.
Fortin delivered a dominant 6-0 first set in singles action, but fell in the next two, 2-6, 3-6.
Jacobs and Olsen brought the Huskies back into the battle until the very end, both fighting through grueling back-and-forth matches against Stanford’s two top-ranked singles players.
Jacobs inched No. 10 Connie Ma to a third set after a 7-2 second set tiebreak. The Cardinal clinched the match after Detkovskaya’s loss on 6 so all three remaining third sets played out fully. The 88th-ranked freshman dropped her final set, 6-4 to Ma.
Olsen remained the final hope for the Huskies to get a point on the board and she delivered in her usual fashion. After going down 2-6 in the first set, Olsen bounced back to deliver consecutive set tiebreaks and defeat No. 24 Yepifanova in three sets nearly four hours after the start of the match.
Wouldn’t be AO if it didn’t end like this ??
Astrid Olsen took down No. 24 Yepifanova in an epic battle on senior day ??#GoHuskies x #BetterTogether pic.twitter.com/UQ9N9f9E0L
— Washington Women’s Tennis (@UW_WTennis) April 15, 2024
Olsen’s win marks the second highest ranked singles win of the season for the Dawgs, behind Jacobs’ win over then-No. 20 Charney from USC (Feb. 10).
The Huskies have one conference regular season match remaining on their schedule: a dual with Washington State in Pullman on Friday, April 19.
Washington Women’s Tennis
April 14, 2024
Seattle, Wash.
No. 26 Washington – 1
No. 3 Stanford – 6
Doubles
1. No. 32 Ma/Yepifanova (Stanford) def. No. 69 Astrid Olsen/Alexia Jacobs, 6-4
2. Erika…
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