The crowd at the Marks Tennis Stadium witnessed two freshmen, dripping in sweat and pride, battling in the final third set for the clinching point that would give their team the victory.
With a tie score of 3-3, all eyes turned to court No. 5 where UCLA”˜s freshman Chanelle Van Nguyen was battling USC’s freshman Gabrielle DeSimone in the final set of the match.
Then, after almost two hours of fighting, Van Nguyen overpowered USC’s DeSimone 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 to give the Bruins a 4-3 win over their crosstown rival.
“It was huge. The experience is something I’ll never forget, especially against our biggest rival. Being down a set and just being in the backcourt, it went from no one watching to the whole place coming in to my match. My teammates were supporting me and it was awesome. I’m so glad I won,” Van Nguyen said.
Van Nguyen believes that the key to victory is to keep fighting because there is a reason bigger than winning for herself.
“I have to remember that I am not just representing myself out there, but I am representing my team and my school, so I have to give everything and if I lose it’s OK because I know that I gave it my all,” she said. “But I have to try my best because I know that the rest of my teammates will.”
The last encounter between these two freshmen was two weeks ago in the semifinal at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Virginia where Van Nguyen won the match in three sets as well.
Fellow freshman Robin Anderson had a no-decision back then playing against her good friend Zoe Scandalis, but she won her match in straight sets this time to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.
“It meant a lot to me because when I played her at indoors, I thought that I had played a lot better than the time I played her in (Las Vegas) in January and being able to come out here and beat her in straight sets today, it really meant a lot to me. Last time we did play outside I did lose 0-1, but she is a really, really good player (and) she is very talented. It was still a really tough match.”
The Bruins got off on the right foot when they won the doubles point after winning in courts No. 1 and 3. The clinching point came once again from court No. 3 where the experienced duo of seniors McCall Jones and Carling Seguso downed the pair of Valeria Pulido and Scandalis, 8-6.
After the doubles point, USC quickly tied things up 1-1 after sophomore Kaitlyn Christian defeated freshman Skylar Morton 6-3, 6-0.
After Anderson gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead, USC’s Sabrina Santamaria beat junior Pamela Montez 6-2, 6-3 to tie things up 2-2 once again.
“I was very disappointed. This is the first match that I’ve lost all year. I was pretty upset with myself for how I played, but I mean ultimately it is a team, and my teammates were still out there playing so I had to go out there and support them,” Montez said.
Montez believes that what happens now is important, but the biggest challenge is still ahead of them.
“For me as a junior it’s just (about) what happens at the end of the year because last year we had a terrible year, but yet we made it to the Final Four, and the year before that we only lost one match and we lost in the first round.”