The UCLA women’s tennis team had a long, bittersweet flight back home to the Los Angeles Tennis Center this weekend. The Bruins experienced two days on the road, facing two teams back-to-back with less than 24 hours between matches.
The weekend started off on a high note, with No. 3 UCLA first visiting No. 4 Stanford at the Taube Family Tennis Center. With each team only suffering one loss the entire season, the stakes were set high for the Bruins to maintain their higher ranking in their first match against the Cardinal.
Senior Courtney Dolehide and junior Chanelle Van Nguyen secured the team’s first doubles win, with freshman Jennifer Brady and junior Robin Anderson maintaining their perfect doubles record and clinching the first point of the match. The match moved on to singles, with the Bruins crushing the Cardinal on three of their six home courts. Sophomore Kyle McPhillips managed to shut out her opponent, leading to a quick victory in her second match, while Anderson won her last two sets over Stanford’s top player, Kristie Ahn.
After the 4-3 victory over their Pac-12 rival, the Bruins (18-2, 6-1) moved on to Berkeley, where they faced the Golden Bears for the second time this season, this time at the Hellman Tennis Complex instead of home in Los Angeles.
When the two teams faced off back in February, the Bruins defeated the Golden Bears 4-3. However, the No. 12 Golden Bears (14-4, 7-0) came prepared to avenge their previous loss, and defend their clean record of no losses in Pac-12 conference play.
At the start of the match, UCLA’s undefeated doubles team of Anderson and Brady won their match, followed by Dolehide and Van Nguyen, earning UCLA the doubles point.
Though Van Nguyen fell to Anett Schutting of California in the first singles match, victories on the two neighboring courts by Brady and Anderson set the Bruins up for what looked like yet another victory on the road. The match ended in two tie-breakers, where McPhillips and sophomore Catherine Harrison fought to gain the advantage, but eventually UCLA lost to end the over four-hour match, with the final score 4-3 California.
Though the Golden Bears are ranked first in the conference and favored to win the conference title, the Bruins have three more Pac-12 matches to turn things around before the championships. They return home this weekend, looking to maintain their perfect doubles record and defeat Arizona on Monday and gain another conference win before competing in the Pac-12 Women’s Tennis Championships starting on April 24.
Compiled by Alexis Williams, Bruin Sports contributor