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NCAA Women's Tennis Championships: Stanford, Oregon, UCLA headed to second round

by Sarah Kezele & Sean Kent
May 11, 2018
Scott Chandler/UCLA Athletics

The 2018 NCAA Women's Tennis Championships ramped up Friday with Arizona State, Oregon, Stanford and UCLA representing the Pac-12 in the hunt for a team championship. 

[Related: 2018 NCAA Women's Tennis Championships (NCAA.com)]

Arizona State

Arizona State was ousted early in the day with a hard-fought match against Wake Forest, 4-2, in the Athens Regional. Wake Forest started out with the upper hand, edging out the Devils in doubles play. ASU nabbed first-set wins on courts 2, 5 and 6 in the singles competition, but relinquished courts 3 and 4 to give the Demon Deacons a 3-2 team lead. 

All eyes then went to courts 1 and 2, where both matches needed three sets. Court 1 ended up being the clincher for Wake Forest, where Emma Davis outlasted ASU's Lauryn John-Baptiste (6-4, 1-6, 6-2). 

ASU wraps up its season with a 16-8 team record. John-Baptiste and Ilze Hattingh will play on in the doubles tournament later this month. The pairing lost just one match in the regular season and played through the Pac-12 Championships semifinals in late April. 

Oregon

Oregon nabbed the Pac-12's first win of the tournament with a 4-2 victory over Tennesee. The Volunteers picked up the doubles point with ease, winning courts 2 and 3. But the Ducks turned it up a notch in singles play, claiming two of the first three matches to finish with wins by Daniela Nasser on court 4 (6-1, 6-2) and Julia Eshet (6-4, 7-6(3)) on court 5. That brought the team score to a 2-2 tie.

It was all Oregon from there. Julia Lilien claimed court 3 with a three-set win, paving the way for Shweta Sangwan to close it out on court 2. Sangwan secured the team win with a 7-6, 6-2 victory, sending the Ducks to a second-round bout with the winner of Duke.

Stanford

Stanford is advancing to Saturday with a convincing 4-0 sweep of Big East champion St. John's on The Farm. After claiming the doubles point, Caroline Lampl was nearly flawless in a 6-0, 6-1 victory over the Red Storm's Jaide Collins on court 3.

Emma Higuchi tallied the next point on court 6, dispatching Kajsa Stegrell 6-0, 6-0 to put the Card up 3-0. You might as well call Emily Arbuthnott "the closer." The British-born sophomore notched her team-best seventh clinching victory of the season with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Zofia Stanisz.

The No. 15 seed Cardinal will now take on Michigan Saturday at 4 p.m. PT.

UCLA

UCLA capped off the day for the Pac-12 with a 4-0 sweep of Fresno State in Westwood. The 12th-seeded Bruins start things with wins on courts 1 and 3 to claim the doubles point.

Alaina Miller took the first singles match from the Mountain West Champions with a 6-0, 6-1 over Olivia Noble. Ena Shibahara had to work a little harder with a 6-0, 7-6 win against Emma Wilson, while the clincher was a flawless Abi Altick 6-0, 6-0 victory over Ndindi Ndunda.

The Bruins will now take on 25th-ranked Baylor Saturday at 3 p.m. PT.

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