LOS ANGELES, Calif. – After four hours of back-and-forth tennis, Nikki Redelijk of the #6 Pepperdine women's tennis program clinched a 4-3 win over #16 UCLA on Wednesday afternoon at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
On court six, #97 Redelijk (Windermere, Fla.) battled back after dropping the second set against Vanessa Ong to win the third set and win the match 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 for Pepperdine, netting the Waves another top-20 victory.
The win snapped an eight-match winning streak for UCLA (10-4) and was the 11th ranked win of the season for Pepperdine (15-4). It was also the third win in a row and ninth in the last 13 meetings for the Waves over their Southern California foe.
Doubles were tight across the board – taking 75 minutes – as one match was decided by two games while the last two were decided by a tiebreak. The court two pair of Savannah Broadus (Carrollton, Texas) and Shiori Fukuda (Tokyo, Japan) were the first to break through, claiming a 6-4 win over the 36th-ranked pair of Catanzarite and Forbes. UCLA's tandem on court three stormed to a 7-6 (0) win, making court one the doubles point decider. In a tiebreak, the Bruins won 11-9 to take the doubles point for the second time in as many meetings against Pepperdine this season.
#23 Lisa Zaar (Stockholm, Sweden) claimed the first singles victory of the day, defeating #93 Elysia Bolton 6-4, 6-2 on straight sets. Almost immediately after, the Bruins earned a straight-set victory on court one to retake the lead at 2-1.
The teams traded points once again on courts three and four, as UCLA won on four, but #47 Taisiya Pachkaleva (Moscow, Russia) was a 6-3, 7-5 victor on court three over Sasha Vagramov. With two courts remaining, UCLA held a 3-2 lead.
After #54 Victoria Flores (Fort Dodge, Iowa) knotted the match up at three with a straight-set, 7-5, 6-3 win over Elise Wagle on court five, the stage was set for Redelijk to capture the win.
RESULTS
DOUBLES
#47 Bolton/Wagle def. Pachkaleva/Zaar 7-6 (9)
Broadus/Fukuda def. #36 Catanzarite/Forbes 6-4
Hance/Vagramov def. Flores/Redelijk 7-6 (0)
Order of finish: 2, 3, 1
SINGLES
#43 Forbes def. #11 Fukuda 6-3, 6-4
#23 Zaar def. #93 Bolton 6-4, 6-2
#47 Pachkaleva def. Vagramov 6-3, 7-5
Hance def. #86 Broadus 6-3, 7-5
#54 Flores def. Wagle 7-5, 6-3
#97 Redelijk def. Ong 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
Order of finish: 2, 1, 4, 3, 5, 6*
NEXT UP: Pepperdine has a quick turnaround, heading north to face Gonzaga on Friday at 2:00 p.m.
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