LOS ANGELES – The UCLA women’s tennis team got off on the right foot, but ultimately fell to No. 18 Stanford in a 5-2 conference result Sunday afternoon at Los Angeles Tennis Center.
The Bruins (6-5, 1-3 Pac-12) earned the doubles point and Fangran Tian added a win after the overall decision was sealed. Alexis Blokhina clinched the victory for the Cardinal (11-2, 4-0), completing a two-win day.
Tian and Ava Catanzarite took the first three and final three games on the second doubles court, dispatching of Sara Choy and Alexandra Yepifanova by a 6-3 score to give UCLA the advantage. No. 62 Blokhina and Angelica Blake answered for Stanford, doubling up No. 6 Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle on the top court. The Bruins seized the point when Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer and Sasha Vagramov knocked off Connie Ma and Valencia Xu 6-4 on Court 3. The doubles win represents the first of Lutkemeyer’s career.
Choy defeated Lutkemeyer 6-3, 6-0 on the sixth singles court, pulling the Cardinal level. No. 33 Yepifanova then bested No. 87 Catanzarite 6-2, 6-4, in one of three singles contests between nationally-ranked players, giving Stanford its first lead. Xu pushed the score to 3-1 when she topped Wagle 6-3, 6-4 on Court 5.
Vagramov forced a second-set tiebreaker on Court 4 to extend the match, but she was outlasted by No. 84 Blokhina in a 6-4, 7-6(4) clinching result. The Cardinal added a fifth point on No. 12 Ma’s 1-6, 6-2, 6-0 showing versus No. 78 Hance on Court 2.
UCLA got on the…
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