LOS ANGELES — The 24th-ranked LSU women’s tennis team (3-1) lost a hard-fought battle for the doubles point and could not bounce back in singles as the Lady Tigers fell to third-ranked UCLA, 4-1, Sunday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
In doubles, UCLA’s Ashley Joelson and Carling Seguso finished first on court two as they defeated Hannah Robinson and Whitney Wolf 8-1.
Nicole Kantor and Staten Spencer were up 4-2 against the 39th-ranked duo of Maya Johansson and Stephanie Wetmore on court three. The Bruin tandem won two games in a row to tie the set at 4-4 and then took the lead at 5-4. Kantor and Spencer fought back and took the next two games, leading at 6-5. The pair was unable to keep the lead, as Johansson and Wetmore won the last three games, clinching the doubles point at 8-6.
Andrea Remynse and Yasmin Schnack led the 17th-ranked team of Megan Falcon and Mykala Hedberg 7-5 on court one, but the match was cut short when the doubles point was clinched.
UCLA (3-0) built on their lead in singles play when the Bruins’s No. 106 Schnack beat Hedberg 6-1, 6-1 on court two. On court six, Wetmore defeated Spencer 6-2, 6-1 to put UCLA up 3-0.
LSU’s Wolf, a freshman from Pride, La., won the biggest match of her young career as she took down No. 63 Johansson 6-3, 6-4 on court three to put the Lady Tigers on the board at 3-1. Wolf stayed ahead of Johansson for the entire first set. In the second set, Johansson took the first game, but Wolf answered by winning the next game and never looked back. The match marked Wolf’s first career victory against a ranked opponent.
On court five, Robinson took the first set against Seguso in a competitive tiebreaker 7-6(3). Seguso quickly responded by clinching the overall match, as she defeated Robinson in the next two sets 6-2, 6-1.
A comeback victory by Kantor on court four was stifled as the match was left unfinished when Seguso clinched the overall match for UCLA. After dropping the first set 6-2, Kantor rallied back to take the second set 7-5 and was leading Joelson 2-1 when the match ended.
No. 5 Falcon maintained her record of 16-4 as her match was left unfinished as well.
“That was a really hard-fought match. I’m extremely proud of the girls for giving effort and putting themselves in the position to play on the road against a great team like UCLA. We need to use this and bounce back and go from here,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis.
The Lady Tigers will be back in action Friday in their home opener against #73 SMU (4-0) at 3 p.m. CST at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.
#3 UCLA 4, #24 LSU 1
February 1, 2009 at Los Angeles, Calif. (Los Angeles Tennis Center)
Singles
1. #31 Andrea Remynse (UCLA) led #5 Megan Falcon (LSU) 6-4, 3-4, unfinished
2. #106 Yasmin Schnack (UCLA) def. Mykala Hedberg (LSU) 6-1, 6-1
3. Whitney Wolf (LSU) def. #63 Maya Johansson (UCLA) 6-3, 6-4
4. Nicole Kantor (LSU) led Ashley Joelson (UCLA) 2-6, 7-5, 2-1, unfinished
5. Carling Seguso (UCLA) def. Hannah Robinson (LSU) 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-1
6. Stephanie Wetmore (UCLA) def. Staten Spencer (LSU) 6-2, 6-1
Doubles
1. Remynse/Schnack (UCLA) led #17 Falcon/Hedberg (LSU) 7-5, unfinished
2. Joelson/Seguso (UCLA) def. Robinson/Wolf (LSU) 8-1
3. #39 Johansson/Wetmore (UCLA) def. Kantor/Spencer (LSU) 8-6
Match Notes
LSU 3-1; National ranking #24
UCLA 3-0; National ranking #3
Order of Finish
Doubles (2,3); Singles (2,6,3,5)