OJAI, Calif. – With a straight-set victory over Stanford's Krista Hardebeck on Friday afternoon, UCLA senior Catherine Harrison punched her ticket to the semifinals of the Pac-12 Women's Tennis Championships. The semifinal and final rounds will be held at Libbey Park in Ojai.
After struggling to find her rhythm in her first- and second-round matches on Thursday, Harrison hit the court with a vengeance and cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 victory over her Cardinal foe.
“Today I was more settled in,” said Harrison of her improved performance on Friday. “I knew that I'd have to play well to win. Krista is one of my best friends and we've played each other countless times. We know each other's games pretty well, so I knew I had to focus a little more today and that I couldn't afford to get down like I did yesterday.”
Final four! Cat defeats Hardebeck (STAN) 6-2, 6-3 to advance to the Pac-12 singles semifinals tomorrow! #Pac12Ten pic.twitter.com/XDJsYK2KMg
— UCLA Women's Tennis (@uclawtennis) April 22, 2016
The third-seeded Bruin goes head to head with No. 7 seed Lauren Marker of Arizona in Saturday's Final Four matchup. In their regular season meeting, Harrison dispatched Marker in straight sets to help lift the Bruins over the Wildcats, 5-2.
“I'm going into the match confident,” said Harrison of the semifinal matchup. “Sure I beat her last time, but she's a really quality player and I've seen her results. I'm prepared for a much tougher match tomorrow than the last time we played.”
In the Championship Doubles Draw, the third-seeded duo of Harrison and Kyle McPhillips coasted past Arizona's Devin Chypyha and Inge Hendrikx, 6-2, in the round of 16. However, Harrison and McPhillips faced a little more resistance in their quarterfinal matchup against Stanford's Melissa Lord and Carol Zhao.
With the score tied at 3-3, Lord and Zhao broke the Bruins to take the lead. The senior duo broke right back to knot the set at 4-4. The teams traded breaks until the score was tied at 6-6. In the tiebreaker, Lord and Zhao jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Harrison and McPhillips fell 7-6(2).
“We played okay in our first match,” said Harrison of her morning outing with McPhillips. “We played really well in our second match though. It was a really high-quality matchup for both teams. In my opinion, Lord and Zhao are probably one of the best team's we've ever played together in my four years. It was high-quality tennis the whole time—it's a shame that someone had to lose.”
In the Singles Invitational Draw, sophomore Maia Magill's run came to an end when she fell to Stanford's Caroline Lampl in straights. After posting two wins on Thursday, Magill dropped her quarterfinal match to Lampl, 6-4, 6-3.
In doubles play, both Bruin pairs won their first-round invitational sets. Terri Fleming and Alaina Miller edged Oregon's Paloma Gomez and Marlou Kluiving, 7-6(5), while Magill and Kristin Wiley downed USC's Paige Keating and Kristen Venter, 6-3. In the quarterfinals, Fleming and Miller ousted Utah's fourth-seeded duo of Alexia Petrovic and Sarah Richter, 6-3, and Magill and Wiley defaulted to Washington State's Barbora Michalkova and Aneta Miksovska.
The Pac-12 Women's Tennis Championships continues Saturday at Libbey Park. Harrison faces Marker in the championship semifinals at 10:30 am PDT. Fleming and Miller play in the semifinals of the Doubles Invitational Draw at 9 am PDT.
For updates, follow UCLA Women's Tennis on Twitter.
Pac-12 Championships
Apr 21-24 at Ojai, Calif.
| Singles competition | |
| Championship Singles | |
| QF | #17 Catherine Harrison (UCLA) def. #93 Krista Hardebeck (Stanford) 6-2, 6-3 |
| Singles Invitational | |
| QF | Caroline Lampl (Stanford) def. Maia Magill (UCLA) 6-4, 6-3 |
| Doubles competition | |
| Championship Doubles | |
| 16 | #6 Harrison/McPhillips (UCLA) def. Chypyha/Hendrikx (Arizona) 6-2 |
| QF | Lord/Zhao (Stanford) def. #6 Harrison/McPhillips (UCLA) 7-6 (7-2) |
| Doubles Invitational | |
| 16 | Fleming/Miller (UCLA) def. Gomez/Kluiving (Oregon) 7-6 (7-5) |
| 16 | Wiley/Magill (UCLA) def. Keating/Venter (USC) 6-3 |
| QF | Fleming/Miller (UCLA) def. Petrovic/Richter (Utah) 6-3 |
| QF | Michalkova/Miksovska (Washington State) def. Wiley/Magill (UCLA), by default |