ATHENS, Ga. “”mdash; Being thrust into a situation in which she had never been before, Alex McGoodwin adapted well, but not without struggles.
The Bruin senior was the center of attention on Sunday morning as the No. 12 UCLA women’s tennis team took on the No. 4 Florida Gators. With the NCAA quarterfinal match knotted at 3-3, she successfully clinched the win for her team (20-7) to send UCLA into the semifinals.
“It’s a huge match for us anyway, but to be able to do it against Florida, I can’t even describe it,” McGoodwin said.
It was the Gators who ousted the Bruins from the 2006 NCAA Championships in the round of 16 by the same 4-3 score, ending the Bruins’ postseason run with a taste that has remained in their mouths, as the majority of last year’s squad has returned this season.
After winning the first set 6-4, McGoodwin led 5-4 and was serving with three match points. However, Florida’s Csilla Borsanyi was able to fight off all three points and get the match back on serve at 5-5, and was able to take a 6-5 lead after holding her serve after facing two break points from McGoodwin.
“After that happened, I knew I couldn’t let myself get upset about it,” McGoodwin said. “When it was 5-5, I didn’t win the big points and I just kind of knew I had to move on to the next game and not worry about it.”
She did just that, as she won the next game with her powerful serve, hitting aces on big points, to send the second set into a tiebreak.
“I was pretty confident in the tiebreaker because her serve was very strong,” UCLA assistant coach Rance Brown said. “We didn’t change the game plan. She kept her composure and I just kept telling her to do what she was doing that got her there.”
The advice paid off as McGoodwin was able to get ahead quickly in the tiebreak without ever having to look back, winning 7-4 and clinching a meeting with the top-ranked Stanford Cardinal on Monday afternoon.
After jumping ahead to a quick 3-0 lead after wins on two doubles courts and from freshman Yasmin Schnack and junior Elizabeth Lumpkin, the Bruins dropped three matches in a row to set the stage for McGoodwin.
“Until you win that last match, that last point, you can’t relax because you just never know what can happen,” UCLA coach Stella Sampras Webster said.
Lumpkin not only helped the team avenge the last loss to Florida, but also fulfilled a personal sense of revenge as well, as the round-of-16 loss last season came down to her court, where she was unable to help the Bruins advance to the quarterfinals.
“I was just really happy to get a win and get it early and help the team because last year I had a tough one against Florida and ended up losing the deciding match,” Lumpkin said. “It was good for me to get some revenge and help get the win today.”
The Bruins have been able to find success in an area that was shaky throughout much of the season ““ the doubles point.
During its postseason stretch, UCLA has yet to lose the doubles point and has won every match in which it secured the match’s opening point.
“Once we get the doubles point, it feels like we can turn around the entire intensity of the match,” freshman Stephanie Wetmore said.
On Sunday, it was the No. 3 duo of Lumpkin and Wetmore that clinched the early go-ahead point, recording an 8-6 decision after having fallen behind 4-2 early on.
Though they trailed early and the No. 2 tandem of McGoodwin and sophomore Ashley Joelson were in a similar situation, the pair of Bruins on the third court were able to regain their composure and revert to the strategy with which they were most comfortable and successful.
“I have this confidence in us that, no matter if we are down, we can turn it around,” Wetmore said. “As soon as we started playing our game and taking control of the middle, we got ahead.”
With the win, the Bruins feel that they have reestablished themselves as one of the nation’s elite teams. Brown noted that UCLA is playing its best tennis of the season when it matters the most, and credited Sampras Webster for getting the most out of her players.
“I think this puts us in a position to play and compete and fight against everyone,” Brown said. “(Sampras Webster) has really prepared the girls well to peak at this time of year.”