NASHVILLE, Tenn. — After a battle that came down to the last point on the final court, No. 15 Vanderbilt women’s tennis saw its season come to a close in Saturday’s NCAA Regional final against No. 17 UCLA, falling 4-3 to the Bruins at the Lummis Tennis Center.
UCLA struck first in doubles, capturing wins at its No. 1 and No. 3 positions to take an early lead. The lone doubles victory came from No. 76-ranked sophomore Valeria Ray and junior Bridget Stammel, who knocked off No. 11 Olivia Center and Kate Fakih 6-2. It is the duo’s highest ranked win of the season.
Momentum began to swing the way of Vanderbilt in singles play; the Dores produced four first set leads at five available courts. No. 5-ranked senior Célia-Belle Mohr soon notched the first win of the day for the black and gold, taking down No. 31 Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer 6-4, 6-2. Freshman Trinetra Vijayakumar gave Vandy its first lead with a 7-5, 6-4 win over No. 39 Kate Fakih. It is Vijayakumar’s highest ranked win of her career and her second of the season.
The Bruins struck back at No. 2 and No. 3 singles to snatch a 3-2 advantage. Down to its final two lines, Vanderbilt seemed to have seized the momentum. Freshman Sophia Webster went up 3-0 in the third set at No. 5 singles and senior Amy Stevens cruised to a 6-3 first set win. With Webster up 5-3, Stevens finished off Olivia Center 6-2 in the second to bring the match to 3-3. Despite the momentum shift, UCLA’s Ahmani Guichard hung around against Webster. She battled back to a 5-5 score, and after going down 6-5, took the next game to force a tiebreaker to decide the season. Guichard ultimately finished off the tiebreaker 8-6 to seal Vanderbilt’s loss.
“Just a tough, tough outcome today,” head coach Aleke Tsoubanos said. “Obviously the match was as competitive as advertised and I congratulate UCLA; they fought hard and got through the finish line. I’ve said at least once this year it isn’t often both teams have points to clinch a dual match, so it was going to end in heartbreak for somebody and, unfortunately, it was us today. The result stings for sure, but it doesn’t take away from how proud I am of what this group has accomplished this season. They continue to push our program forward in the right direction to compete for championships and we will be back next year for sure.”
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No. 17 UCLA 4, No. 15 Vanderbilt 3
Doubles
1. No. 14 Kimmi Hance/Elise Wagle (UCLA) def. No. 9 Mohr/Webster (Vanderbilt) 6-3
2. No. 76 Ray/Stammel (Vanderbilt) def. No. 11 Center/Fakih (UCLA) 6-2
3. Guichard/Lutkemeyer (UCLA) def. Sonya Macavei/Stevens (Vanderbilt) 7-5
Singles
1. No. 5 Mohr (Vanderbilt) def. No. 31 Lutkemeyer (UCLA) 6-4, 6-2
2. No. 93 Hance (UCLA) def. No. 70 Ray (Vanderbilt) 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-0
3. No. 62 Wagle (UCLA) def. No. 54 Stammel (Vanderbilt) 6-3, 7-6 (3)
4. Vijayakumar (Vanderbilt) def. No. 39 Fakih (UCLA) 7-5, 6-4
5. Guichard (UCLA) def. Webster (Vanderbilt) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6)
6. Stevens (Vanderbilt) def. Center (UCLA) 6-3, 6-2
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (1,4,3,2,6,5)
