Women's Tennis Advances to Pac-12 Semifinals

OJAI, Calif. – The second-seeded UCLA women's tennis team prevailed in its Pac-12 Championships opener Thursday, defeating No. 10-seed Washington State by a 4-1 score at Ojai Valley Athletic Club.

The Bruins (12-5) will next face No. 3 Stanford or No. 6 Oregon in Friday's second semifinal-round match (3 p.m. PT) at OVAC.

UCLA surrendered just one game across its two completed doubles matches and saw Kimmi Hance, Vanessa Ong and Sasha Vagramov post straight-set singles victories. Vagramov provided the clincher. Elyse Tse notched the only win of the day for the Cougars (8-15).

The third-court doubles combination of Hance and Vagramov dropped its first game with Hania Abouelsaad and Fifa Kumhom before taking the rest to improve its record to 11-0 in dual-match play. Shortly after, the No. 49 team of Elysia Bolton and Elise Wagle secured the doubles point without dropping a single game against the 62nd-ranked pair of Michaela Bayerlova and Maxine Murphy.

Hance continued her nearly-spotless day on the fourth singles court, where she bested Abouelsaad by a 6-0, 6-1 margin. Hance has now won 10 singles matches in a row.

Ong earned her first victory of the year on Court 5, increasing the Bruins' lead to 3-0 with her 6-4, 6-2 performance versus Kumhom.

Tse would put a stop to UCLA's run, edging past Ava Catanzarite in a second-set tiebreaker to complete her 6-3, 7-6(2) win to put WSU on the board.

With Bolton and Abbey Forbes nearing victories of their own, Vagramov held off Murphy for a 6-1, 6-4 showing that sealed a spot for the Bruins among the tournament's final four teams.

Tennis Match Results
Washington State vs UCLA
4/21/2022 at Ojai, CA
(Ojai Valley Athletic Club)

#16 UCLA 4, Washington State 1

Singles competition
1. #27 Abbey Forbes (UCLA) vs. #43 Michaela Bayerlova (WSU) 6-2, 5-4, unfinished
2. #53 Elysia Bolton (UCLA) vs. Savanna Ly-Nguyen (WSU) 6-4, 6-5, unfinished
3. Sasha Vagramov (UCLA) def. Maxine Murphy (WSU) 6-1, 6-4
4. Kimmi Hance (UCLA) def. Hania Abouelsaad (WSU) 6-0, 6-1
5. Vanessa Ong (UCLA) def. Fifa Kumhom (WSU) 6-4, 6-2
6. Elyse Tse (WSU) def. Ava Catanzarite (UCLA) 6-3, 7-6 (7-2)

Doubles competition
1. #49 Elysia Bolton/Elise Wagle (UCLA) def. #62 Michaela Bayerlova/Maxine Murphy (WSU) 6-0
2. #60 Ava Catanzarite/Abbey Forbes (UCLA) vs. Yang Lee/Savanna Ly-Nguyen (WSU) 4-2, unfinished
3. Kimmi Hance/Sasha Vagramov (UCLA) def. Hania Abouelsaad/Fifa Kumhom (WSU) 6-1

Match Notes:
Washington State 8-15
UCLA 12-5; National ranking #16
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (4,5,6,3)
Pac-12 Championships - Quarterfinal Round