Alaina Miller crouched in front of the net as doubles partner Terri Fleming served for match point against Arizona State’s Kassidy Jump and Sammi Hampton. The pair was on the biggest stage of their young careers: the finals of the Pac-12 doubles invitational championship.
After a quick back-and-forth between Jump and Fleming, an unforced error by Jump ceded the match and title to No. 25 UCLA’s number two doubles team.
The victory was not only the highlight of the tournament for women’s tennis, but a bonding moment for the duo as well.
“I think we just figured out how to play with each other,” Miller said. “We figured out what game plans work and what is the best for our game. We were playing it by ear and no matter how bad we were playing or how good we were playing, we were just having a good time.”
The pair’s inexperience – they played just three matches together before the Pac-12 tournament – was a challenge in the opening rounds of the competition, but as the two advanced into the later rounds, their confidence continued to rise.
Doubles play has been the Achilles’ heel for the Bruins all season, but the two believe they can be a reliable asset in the NCAA Tournament if they keep it up.
“This was really good for us to get some chemistry and confidence together,” Fleming said. “With Cat (Harrison) and Kyle (McPhillips) on (court) one and me and Alaina on two, I think we can win some doubles points moving forward.”
Senior falls short in singles final
Catherine Harrison has had herself a nice career at UCLA. In just this year’s regular season, the senior compiled a 17-3 record in dual match play and competed in the USTA/ITA National Indoors Intercollegiate Championship back in November.
On Sunday, the nation’s No. 17 singles player had a chance to add to her resume against Cal’s Maegan Manasse – the nation’s No. 11 ranked singles player – who handed Harrison one of her three losses earlier this season.
After cruising through the first four rounds of the tournament, Harrison struggled against Cal’s ace player, losing 6-3, 6-2. The defeat thwarted Harrison’s chance to become the first women’s player ever to earn back-to-back Pac-12 singles titles.
“Today was disappointing and I didn’t play my best, but it was great to make it this far and I was really happy about how I competed,” Harrison said. “Maegan’s been a No. 1 player in the country before and plays one for the No. 1 team in the country, so if I’m not playing my best against her, I’m not going to win.”
While Harrison has rarely been on the losing side throughout her career, she said there were still many positive takeaways from the defeat.
“The biggest positive from this week is seeing how much I’ve improved mentally,” Harrison said. “Despite not playing my best, I was really encouraged by that because I used to just kind of mentally go away in those situations.”
The Bruins have three weeks to prepare for the NCAA Tournament, as the first round of the competition commences on May 13.
Contact Cardoza at kcardoza@dailybruin.com or tweet him @kylecardoza8.