Up 5-3 in the third set of the national semifinals, all Ashley Joelson needed was one more point to clinch a monumental upset over No. 1 Stanford on Monday in Athens, Ga.
One more point and the Bruins would snap their 20-match losing streak against the Cardinal and advance to the NCAA Championships as a 12 seed.
Her opponent, Whitney Deason, walked back to the baseline, lined up to serve … then the live feed went dead and the screen went black.
For about 30 seconds, nobody outside of Athens knew what happened. Fortunately the score updated and, as if it was routine, the online scoreboard showed what nobody expected ““ UCLA 4, Stanford 2.
And with about as little fanfare as a third-grade spelling bee, the women’s tennis team knocked off the women of Palo Alto in what was about as unprecedented an upset in women’s tennis as you will ever see.
For the past 25 years (since women’s tennis became an NCAA team sport), Stanford tennis has been synonymous with championships. The Cardinal have won 15 of the 25 team titles and only missed the NCAA Semifinals once. Until Monday, the Cardinal had won 110 of their previous 111 matches, including 22 straight in NCAA Tournament play.
Then the Bruins came knockin’.
With revenge on their minds, the Bruins went after Stanford with nothing to lose. They had already lost two close 4-3 matches to the Cardinal this season and nobody expected Monday’s result to be any different.
But then again, the Bruins had made a point all season of proving people wrong.
After losing to an average Northwestern team on Feb. 1, the Bruins took care of business 4-0 against the same Wildcats in the Round of 16.
The Bruins also lost a heartbreaker to Florida last season 4-3 in the Round of 16, but would not be denied again, this time dropping the Gators by the same score in the quarterfinals.
But those matches were nothing compared to the history that was made Monday night, as the mother-of-all-underdog Bruins simply refused to lose.
After dropping the first set in a tiebreaker, Joelson’s reaction was a microcosm of UCLA’s season. Although she was up against some serious odds needing two sets to win, she went back out and played as if she was the one in the lead.
In about the time it took to buy a pretzel at Ackerman, Joelson had stormed back, taking the second set 6-1 and swinging momentum back to the Bruins’ side.
All this was happening as players on the UCLA roster started to knock off All-American after All-American, despite the discrepancies in their national rankings. Tracy Lin, ranked No. 40, sat down No. 17 Anne Yelsey for the first time they’ve played, and No. 56 Yasmin Schnack took out No. 14 Celia Durkin.
Each Stanford singles player was ranked above her UCLA counterpart, and the Cardinal boasted four players in the top 20.
But on Monday, rankings didn’t matter.
The Bruins played like they had everything to prove and are now one step away from capturing their first NCAA team championship.
Let’s just hope whoever operates the live video feed from Athens doesn’t decide to play another practical joke.
E-mail Feder at jfeder@media.ucla.edu if you won your third-grade spelling bee on live TV.