Saturday, April 13, 1996
Doubles teams struggle in Friday’s 5-3 victory over Southern
CaliforniaBy Hye Kwon
Daily Bruin Staff
The UCLA women’s tennis team started off Friday’s match against
Southern California slower than molasses but amassed momentum in
time to record the 5-3 victory on the maroon colored courts of
Marks Stadium.
With the exception of Stephanie Chi, all Bruins were broken
early. At the first two spots, USC’s Suzanne Italiano and Ditta
Huber had 4-1 leads over Keri Phebus and Paige Yaroshuk. The
situations were similar for Kelly Rudolph and Brandi Freudenberg,
who were headed for first-set losses.
Then, the Bruins (16-4 overall, 5-3 Pacific 10 Southern
Division) got emotional. Yaroshuk pumped herself up with her usual
combination of screaming and punching the air after hitting
winners. Even Phebus, typically quiet on the court, got into the
act.
After Italiano called what appeared to be a winner well inside
the sideline out, Phebus, down 4-1, loudly objected and followed
that with an angry swipe with the racket as she was getting ready
to receive serve.
As the emotional level went up, UCLA began playing better
tennis. Yaroshuk won six of seven games to claim the first set 7-5,
and Phebus won the first-set tiebreaker. Utilizing the comeback
first-set victories as a catapult, Phebus and Yaroshuk took control
and won by scores of 7-6, 6-3 and 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 respectively.
Meanwhile, Chi was well on her way to a 6-3, 7-5 victory over
Karolina Baklarova and Freudenberg was destroying Pam Trump in the
second and third sets to garner the 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory. The
Bruins ended up surrendering two points at the No. 4 and No. 6
spots with Rudolph and Anicia Mendez both losing, but with four
points secured in singles, the Bruins were in control heading into
doubles competition.
The third-ranked team of Phebus and Yaroshuk was expected to
blow away the combination of London and Italiano. But the Women of
Troy rose to the occasion and defeated their nemesis by the score
of 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to keep USC hopes alive.
The load then shifted to Chi and Freudenberg at No. 2 doubles.
Unlike Phebus and Yaroshuk, Chi and Freudenberg survived a
three-set scare to record the 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 win over Trump and
Huber.
Yaroshuk pumped herself up with … screaming and punching the
air … Even Phebus … got into the act.
FRED HE/Daily Bruin
After going down 4-1 in the first set, Paige Yaroshuk came back
to win in three sets.