Texas A&M
UCLA
No. 10 Texas A&M Falls to Defending Champion UCLA, 4-1
May 15, 2015 | Women's Tennis
WACO, Texas –Texas A&M's season came to an end in the NCAA Championship round of 16 as the 10th-ranked Aggies fell to the defending national champions and sixth-ranked UCLA Bruins, 4-1, in a match that began outdoors at the Hurd Tennis Center and finished at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
Texas A&M, which was making its third consecutive appearance in the round of 16 despite not having a senior on the current squad, ends its season with a 17-6 record. UCLA improves to 21-4 and advances to the quarterfinals to face No. 2 seed North Carolina in a rematch of last year's championship match.
A&M, which had posted a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Bruins in the semifinals of the 2013 NCAA Championship in the teams' most recent meeting, would win the doubles point to take what would be its only lead of the match. The doubles point, however, was not decided before rain forced a change of venue, with the teams moving indoors for the final two points of the determining match.
The Bruins took an early advantage at the start of doubles as the No. 3-ranked duo of Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips won five consecutive games to pull away for an 8-3 victory over A&M's 39th-ranked Ines Deheza and Stefania Hristov at the No. 2 line.
A&M's 13th-ranked Eva Paalma and Rachel Pierson then gave the Aggies the momentum, pulling off their highest ranked win since defeating USC's seventh-ranked Giuliana Olmos and Zoe Scandalis in their A&M debut last fall. Facing the ninth-ranked pair of Robin Anderson and Jennifer Brady at the No. 1 line, A&M went up a break at 2-1, and never trailed the remainder of the match. UCLA tied the score at 3-all and 4-all before the Aggie tandem began to pull away. UCLA broke to get within 7-5 before the Maroon and White broke back to close out the 8-5 victory.
The point came down to the No. 3 line where A&M's Rutuja Bhosale and Saska Gavrilovska held a narrow 7-6 lead against Terri Fleming and Chanelle Van Nguyen. The game in progress was tied 30-30 with Bhosale serving when the rain began to fall, making the courts unplayable. The decision was quickly made to move to the nearby Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
The warm up at the indoor courts lasted longer than it would take the Aggies to close out the doubles competition as A&M scored the first two points to close out the 8-6 victory, giving A&M a 1-0 lead. It was only the fifth time the Bruins dropped the doubles point in 25 matches.
Only three courts were available to begin singles as North Carolina and Miami had also been forced indoors and were competing on the other three courts of the six-court facility.
UCLA, the No. 7 seed in the 64-team tournament, took control early in the singles competition as 47th-ranked Brady defeated No. 66 Bhosale, 6-3, 6-2 at the No. 3 line and 21st-ranked Van Nguyen disposed of 54th-ranked Gavrilovska by the identical score at No. 2 to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.
Pierson raised eyebrows with a 6-4 first-set win against top-ranked Anderson at the No. 1 line, but the Bruin senior took over starting in the second set and cruised to a 6-1 win in each of the next two sets to put UCLA ahead, 3-1.
Despite the deficit, A&M kept things interesting as the next three matches got underway. Deheza dropped her first set to 33rd-ranked Harrison, 6-1, at the No. 4 line but regrouped to build a 5-3 second-set lead. Meanwhile, Paalma and Anna Mamalat were finishing off first-set wins at the Nos. 5 and 6 lines, respectively. Paalma had won three consecutive games to close out a 6-3 win against 35th-ranked McPhillips, and Mamalat overcame a 6-5 deficit to tie her first set, 6-6, against Kaitlin Ray and then took the tiebreaker, 7-4.
Harrison, however, squelched the Aggies' comeback hope, reeling off three consecutive games to cap a 6-1, 7-5 straight-set win over Deheza to clinch the winning point for the Bruins.
Pierson, Paalma and Gavrilovska will return to action next week as they will represent the Aggies in the NCAA Individual Championships beginning Wednesday in Waco. Pierson will compete with Paalma in the doubles championship and also will compete in singles, as will Gavrilovska.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M women's tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Aggie-Womens-Tennis/143874782434654
Texas A&M Head Coach Howard Joffe Quotes:
On Texas A&M's shot at winning the match…
"Whether a match is four hours or six hours, there are a lot of ebbs and flows. Doubles had some ebbs and flows. I thought in singles, we got in a pretty good spot and then things really fell apart. You'd have to ask UCLA, but I certainly thought we had a shot there."
On the last three matches…
"These kids are used to being under a lot of pressure, whether it's school or competitive tennis and stuff. So I don't think it affected us in any way. They did a great job. Anna [Mamalat] and Eva [Paalma] went right about their business."
UCLA Head Coach Stella Sampras Webster
On the match overall…
"Overall, just really proud of my team for dealing with everything with the rain and that adversity, and with losing the doubles point and being able to come back and win. I'm just really proud of them to be able to do that. It shows that we don't always have to win the doubles point to win, although we do like to win it. I think we came in a little nervous from doubles and that hurt us a little bit. I'm hoping after today, we can play a little looser and play better in doubles. I thought we played extremely well in singles."
On how close it came during singles…
"You're always thinking the worst—what could happen. That's why I wanted Kyle [McPhillips] to stay focused on her match. I kept telling her, 'It's going to come down to you. Don't think that someone else is going to win it.' You never know in these matches. Everything is tough and momentum changes back and forth. They really need to stay focused on their match and what they need to be doing."
#6 UCLA 4, #10 Texas A&M 1
Hurd Tennis Center/Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center
Waco, Texas
NCAA Championship – Round of 16
Singles - Order of finish: 3, 2, 1, 4
1. #1 Robin Anderson (UCLA) def. #26 Rachel Pierson (A&M) 4-6, 6-1, 6-1
2. #21 Chanelle Van Nguyen (UCLA) def. #54 Saska Gavrilovska (A&M) 6-3, 6-2
3. #47 Jennifer Brady (UCLA) def. #66 Rutuja Bhosale (A&M) 6-3, 6-2
4. #33 Catherine Harrison (UCLA) def. Ines Deheza (A&M) 6-1, 7-5
5. #35 Kyle McPhillips (UCLA) vs. Eva Paalma (A&M) 3-6, 3-2, unfinished
6. Kaitlin Ray (UCLA) vs. Anna Mamalat (A&M) 6-7 (4-7), unfinished
Doubles - Order of finish: 2, 1, 3
1. #13 Paalma/Pierson (A&M) def. #9 Anderson/Brady (UCLA) 8-5
2. #3 Harrison/McPhillips (UCLA) def. #39 Deheza/Stefania Hristov (A&M) 8-3
3. Bhosale/Gavrilovska (A&M) def. Terri Fleming/Van Nguyen (UCLA) 8-6
Team records:
Texas A&M: 17-6
UCLA: 21-4
Players Mentioned
