Cramping in her legs, senior Chanelle Van Nguyen crumpled to the ground.
As the UCLA senior struggled to her feet, her teammates and coaches stood on the sidelines urging her on, point by point.
Despite lingering ailments and fatigue, Van Nguyen fought and scrapped her way to a crucial third set tiebreak. The veteran leader ultimately emerged victorious, leading No. 12 UCLA (9-2) to a 4-3 upset win over its crosstown rival, No. 3 USC (10-2).
“(Van Nguyen) had a lot of heart and fight,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “That’s what we want to see and that’s what we saw.”
UCLA began the five-hour gauntlet with doubles play in front of a large and loud home crowd. However, neither team fully controlled its matches, as players traded leads and pushed each other into long rallies. In a battle of freshmen, Terri Fleming and Kristin Wiley struggled against the Trojans’ strong net play en route to dropping their match to USC’s Madison Westby and Meredith Xepoleas, 8-4.
The other two doubles matches were seesaw battles.
On court one, UCLA’s No. 2-ranked doubles team of juniors Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips pulled away from their USC counterparts with a mix of strong serving and steady groundstrokes.
On court two, three seniors dueled it out in one of the last rivalry matches of their careers. Both teams unleashed big shots at key times to send the deciding match into a tiebreak at seven games apiece.
Although they failed to convert match points earlier in the set, seniors Robin Anderson and Van Nguyen focused on pressuring the Trojans, and jumped out to a 5-0 lead. The duo of Anderson and Van Nguyen secured the match and the doubles point on a Trojan error, giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead heading into singles play.
USC would respond quickly, as Sabrina Santamaria cruised to a singles victory against McPhillips 6-2, 6-0 to tie the game score at 1-1.
Over on court one, Anderson gutted out her first win since returning from injury – a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of No. 17 Giuliana Olmos.
Fellow senior Kaitlin Ray roared back from a 5-3 deficit to claim the first set 7-5. Ray carried her momentum and confidence into the second set, as she combined deft drop shots, accurate serves and deep groundstrokes to win 7-5, 6-2.
Though the match was 3-1 in favor of UCLA, the Bruins struggled to seize the clinching point.
Harrison rolled in her first set 6-1, but during the second set, the UCLA junior suffered a serious cramp that required her to call both the student and athletic trainers for treatment.
Although she attempted to continue playing, Harrison dropped the second set 6-4 and was unable to defend USC’s strong attack. Grimacing with the cramps, she struggled to move in the third set, and lost 1-6, 6-4, 6-1. Moments later, Harrison’s teammate, Fleming, lost her singles match 6-2, 7-6 (6).
With their lead evaporated, the Bruins’ hope for victory turned to court two, where Van Nguyen battled for the deciding seventh point.
“I wasn’t nervous,” Anderson said. “She’s a clutch player.”
The senior traded sets with her opponent before taking a 5-2 lead in the final set. Fighting off cramps, Van Nguyen switched tactics multiple times to throw her opponent, No. 36 Zoe Scandalis, off her rhythm. After losing three games in a row, Van Nguyen gritted out another game to take a 6-5 lead. But then Scandalis answered back by taking the game to a tiebreak.
With the crosstown rivalry match on the line, Van Nguyen mixed moon balls with angled ground strokes, dismantling her opponent and eventually winning when Scandalis sent another volley long. The match-point win sparked a celebration on the courts at Los Angeles Tennis Center.
“I knew what I needed to do,” Van Nguyen said. “I needed to stay aggressive to save my energy.”
The Bruins have a day off before traveling to Waco, Texas for their final preseason match against the No. 4 Baylor Bears. The match pits two championship-caliber teams against each other at the site of the 2015 NCAA championships. With each team aiming for a deep run, the matchup provides a test for both programs to see their progress.