#6 Women's Tennis Advances to NCAA Quarterfinals

Friday, May 10

Malibu, Calif.

1:00 p.m. PT

Pepperdine University

Central Florida (NCAA Super Regional)

Photo by: Jeff Golden

5/10/2019 5:12:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Results Full Bracket Tournament Central

By: by Athletic Communications

MALIBU, Calif. – The No. 6 Pepperdine women's tennis team defeated a tough No. 23 University of Central Florida team 4-2 on Friday afternoon to advance to the round of eight in the NCAA Championship.

The win puts the Waves at 24-3 overall heading into Orlando, Florida. It is the third time in four years the team has advanced to the quarterfinals, and the seventh overall in the 36-year span that Pepperdine has qualified for the championship.

RESULTS
#6 Pepperdine University 4, #23 UCF 2
Singles
1. #37 Lahey, Ashley (PEPP) def. #40 Valeryia Zeleva (UCF) 4-6, 6-4, 6-1
2. #102 Lekaj, Adrijana (PEPPW) def. #82 Ksenia Kuznetsova (UCF) 7-5, 6-1
3. #53 Failla, Jessica (PEPPW) def. Rebeka Stolmar (UCF) 6-3, 6-4
4. Milovanovic, Dzina (PEPPW) def. Marie Mattel (UCF) 7-5, 6-2
5. Natalia Serrano (UCF) def. Kuczer, Daria (PEPPW) 6-3, 6-2
6. Iamachkine,Anastasia (PEPPW) vs. Nandini Sharma (UCF) 6-1, 3-6, 4-3, unfinished
Order of finish: 4, 5, 3, 2, 1*

Doubles
1. #41 Failla, Jessica/Iamachkine,Anastasia (PEPPW) def. #26 Valeryia Zeleva/Ksenia Kuznetsova (UCF) 6-2
2. Rebeka Stolmar/Marie Mattel (UCF) def. #83 Kuczer, Daria/Lahey, Ashley (PEPPW) 7-5
3. Domenika Turkovic/Natalia Serrano (UCF) def. Lekaj, Adrijana/Milovanovic, Dzina (PEPPW) 6-0
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2

RECAP
The #6 Waves started out in doubles play, where the #41 pair of Jessica Failla and Anastasia Iamachkine took out the #26 tandem of Valeryia Zeleva and Ksenia Kuznetsova by a score of 6-2. The doubles point came down to court two, however, where the #83 pair Daria Kuczer and Ashley Lahey faltered against their UCF opponents Rebeka Stolmar and Marie Mattel in extra points, going 7-5 and relinquishing the point to the Knights.

In singles, Dzina Milovanovic delivered the first blow, winning 7-5, 6-2 over Mattel and putting the Waves even with UCF 1-1 overall. After a drop on court five, #53 Failla won 6-3, 6-4 on court three to even the score back out to 2-2. The 102^nd-ranked Adrijana Lekaj stifled an effort from the 82^nd-ranked Kuznetsova, where Lekaj dominated 7-5, 6-1 on court two and putting the score at 3-2 overall.

It was the 37^th-ranked Lahey who sealed the win for Pepperdine, using the first set loss to to fuel her next two sets, winning 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 and putting the Waves up for a final of 4-2.

#WAVESWIN #WAVESWIN #WAVESWIN!!!

#6 Pepp defeats #23 UCF for the trip to Orlando!#WavesUp @NCAATennis @USTASoCal pic.twitter.com/g4X7Tl0mHm
— Pepperdine W. Tennis (@WavesTennis) May 10, 2019

NEXT UP
Pepperdine will head to Orlando, Florida for the last three rounds of the NCAA Championship. They enter the Elite Eight, where they will take on the winner of reigning 2018 champion and No. 2-ranked Stanford and No. 14 Kansas. The match is set to take place at the USTA National Campus on Friday, May 17 at a time still to be determined.

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