UCLA
UC San Diego
No. 24 Women's Tennis Hosts Tritons, Trojans to Close Regular Season
April 17, 2023 | Women's Tennis
The No. 24 UCLA women's tennis team (11-6, 5-4 Pac-12) is set to close out its 2023 regular season with a pair of home matches, taking on UC San Diego Tuesday and clashing once again with crosstown rival and 26th-ranked USC Friday on Senior Day. First serve Tuesday is scheduled for 1 p.m. PT, while Friday's contest will begin at 1:30 p.m. The Bruins have won five of their past six matches, including a 4-3 triumph over No. 5 Pepperdine at Los Angeles Tennis Center on April 12.
FOLLOW LIVE
Fans unable to attend home UCLA women's tennis matches in person can still follow live. Live streaming and live scoring will be available for all matches played at Los Angeles Tennis Center HERE.
LAST TIME OUT
The Bruins earned their fifth win in six tries Friday, posting a 4-0 conference victory against Oregon at UO's Student Tennis Courts. Fangran Tian clinched her second win of the week and fourth of the season. Also victorious in singles play for UCLA were Ava Catanzarite and Kimmi Hance. Hance and Tian also contributed to their team's efforts in doubles play, where they collected the day's first point.
UCLA VS. UC SAN DIEGO, USC
UCLA women's tennis is 2-0 versus UC San Diego. Both matches were played before 1986. UCLA leads its series with crosstown rival USC by a 59-52 margin. The Bruins prevailed in the first crosstown showdown of 2023, beating the Trojans 4-1 in a non-conference match March 16 at David X. Marks Tennis Stadium. The contest was completed after being postponed three times previously due to rain. Vanessa Ong was victorious in clinching fashion for UCLA, which was coming off a 4-3 triumph over then-No. 4 Ohio State. Ong also helped earn a win in the night's final doubles match. Bruins Kimmi Hance and Fangran Tian also won on the singles courts. Eryn Cayetano picked up the lone singles victory for USC.
SCOUTING THE TRITONS, TROJANS
UC San Diego has an overall record of 9-13. The Tritons are 1-7 in Big West play. USC is No. 26, sporting records of 15-7 overall and 6-3 in Pac-12 action. Madison Sieg checks in at No. 7 in the latest ITA Singles Rankings, with Eryn Cayetano backing her up at No. 42 and Snow Han rounding out the trio of Trojans at No. 120. Cayetano and Sieg form the No. 17 doubles pair, while Han and Naomi Cheong are collectively holding on to the No. 44 spot.
SENIOR DAY
Senior student-athletes Caroline Goldberg and Sasha Vagramov will be honored prior to Friday's match with USC. Vagramov recently eclipsed 100 total wins across singles and doubles contests and has logged 13 career match-clinching points. Her career-high singles ranking is No. 49, achieved Dec. 8, 2021. Vagramov is a three-time ITA Scholar-Athlete and two-time Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll member. Goldberg has also three times been named an ITA Scholar-Athlete and twice made the Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll. She earned her first career singles victory Oct. 19, 2019 at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships, and teamed with Vagramov to pick up her initial dual-match win on the third doubles court Jan. 26, 2022.
TAMING THE TOP FIVE
With its 4-3 home victory against No. 5 Pepperdine April 12, UCLA has now twice prevailed in contests with teams ranked in the ITA's top five during 2023 dual-match play. The Bruins also beat then-No. 4 Ohio State by a 4-3 score at Los Angeles Tennis Center exactly one month earlier. Sasha Vagramov was the last player standing versus the Buckeyes, while Fangran Tian provided the heroics to help knock off the Waves. Wins opposite two top-five teams during the same season had most recently happened for UCLA in 2015, when Stella Sampras Webster's Bruins earned 4-3 wins against No. 3 USC (March 4) and at No. 4 Baylor (March 7) in back-to-back matches.
TO A TI-AN
Fangran Tian has recorded wins in 14 straight singles decisions to start her dual-match career. The freshman from Beijing, China has had two matches left unfinished. Of those wins, six have come against nationally-ranked players: No. 11 Janice Tjen of Pepperdine (7-6[1], 6-7[6], 6-3 on April 12), No. 28 Angelica Blake of Stanford (6-1, 1-6, 6-4 on March 26), No. 4 Madison Sieg of USC (6-3, 1-0, retired on March 16), No. 20 Irina Cantos Siemers of Ohio State (6-4, 3-6, 6-1 on March 12), No. 100 Hikaru Sato of Washington (4-6, 6-4, 6-3 on March 3) and No. 57 Thasaporn Naklo of Iowa State (6-1, 6-2 on Jan. 28). Dating back to fall action, Tian is 22-5 in singles play with a 10-4 mark opposite nationally-ranked foes.
IN THE RANKINGS
UCLA moved up to No. 24 in the most recent ITA Computerized Team Rankings, released April 11. The latest ITA National Singles and Doubles Rankings came out the same day and feature three Bruins. Leading the way on the singles list is Fangran Tian, who is at No. 19 after climbing to a career-best No. 17 last week. Kimmi Hance, meanwhile, is listed at No. 106. The tandem of Hance and Elise Wagle sits at No. 6 for doubles โ matching each's career high โ thanks in part to its ITA Southwest Regional Championships title run. The pair beat current No. 1 Savannah Broadus/Janice Tjen of Pepperdine in the final.
CLINCH WATCH
Fangran Tian (at Oregon, Pepperdine, Utah, vs. Rice) has clinched four wins in 2023 dual-match play to lead UCLA. Ava Catanzarite (at Arizona, Loyola Marymount) is next, with two deciding victories. Kimmi Hance (Colorado), Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer (CSUN), Vanessa Ong (at USC), Sasha Vagramov (Ohio State) and Elise Wagle (at Washington State) have each secured the fourth point once this year.
HANCE NAMED PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK FOR MARCH 13-19
Kimmi Hance was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for the week of March 13-19, the conference announced March 21. The visiting Bruins defeated crosstown rival USC 4-1 (March 16) thanks in large part to Hance's wins against nationally-ranked opponents on the doubles and singles courts. The sophomore combination of Hance and Elise Wagle made a statement out of the gate in doubles play, giving UCLA a leg up with their 6-2 display versus the 24th-ranked pair of Naomi Cheong and Snow Han on the top court. Hance then dispatched of No. 61 Han 6-2, 6-3 on the second singles court, extending the Bruins' lead to 3-1. The team victory marked UCLA's third in a row and fifth in six tries. The Pac-12 Player of the Week award represents the first of Hance's career and second in as many weeks for the Bruins. Sasha Vagramov was honored for the week of March 6-12. UCLA has now collected 38 all-time weekly accolades from the conference.
VAGRAMOV TABBED PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK FOR MARCH 6-12
On the heels of her team's 4-3 victory against No. 4 Ohio State, Sasha Vagramov was named Pac-12 Player of the Week in an announcement by the conference March 14. The award was presented for the week of March 6-12. Vagramov was on court as the Bruins secured the first and final points of their thrilling 4-3 victory against the Buckeyes Sunday at Los Angeles Tennis Center. With all eyes on the fourth singles court, the senior won a deuce point to lift her past Isabelle Boulais for a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 result and set off a celebration. Vagramov also paired with Vanessa Ong to defeat Kolie Allen and Danielle Willson 6-4 on Court 3, clinching the doubles point. Vagramov was previously voted Pac-12 Player of the Week Feb. 11, 2020.
FALL RECAP
Bruins made appearances at six events, including two national ones, during the fall. There were two championship performances, as Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle teamed to win the ITA Southwest Regional Championships doubles title in San Diego, while the combination of Vanessa Ong and Sasha Vagramov took the Dennis Rizza Classic top prize in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif. Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer, who was the top singles performer at the Women of Troy Invitational, collected a team-high 11 singles wins. Hance, Ava Catanzarite and Fangran Tian each beat three nationally-ranked opponents. Hance also made the singles final round at the ITA Southwest Regionals.
2021-22 IN REVIEW
The 2021-22 UCLA women's tennis team went 13-7, finishing second in the Pac-12 with a 7-1 record. The Bruins advanced past Arkansas in the NCAA Championships first round, but were outlasted by host Oklahoma State in a 4-2 second-round decision. Elysia Bolton and Abbey Forbes qualified for the NCAA singles draw, while the duo of Bolton and Elise Wagle made the doubles draw. Bolton advanced to the singles second round. Forbes (First Team), Bolton (Second Team) and Kimmi Hance (Honorable Mention) received All-Conference honors from the Pac-12. Forbes was also tabbed the ITA Southwest Region's recipient of the Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship award.
WHO'S NEW?
Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer and Fangran Tian make up UCLA's freshman class. Lutkemeyer (Irvine, Calif.), a Blue Chip recruit according to TennisRecruiting.net, was the No. 1 player in her class during 2020 and 2021. She took the singles championship at the 2021 PTT Newport Beach, Calif. Women's $25K Hard 2 event. On the junior level, Lutkemeyer collected the Girls' 16 singles crown at the 2018 USTA International Spring Championships in Carson, Calif. Tian (Beijing, China) won the Girls' singles title at the 2019 Australian Open Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-Off event, earning wild-card entry into the 2020 Australian Open Junior Championships. She also earned a spot in the 2019 Roland-Garros Junior Championships singles draw.
BRUINS ON TOUR
Ena Shibahara earned her first Grand Slam championship in 2022, teaming with Wesley Koolhof to seize the mixed doubles title at Roland-Garros. She also recently made her first major women's doubles final round alongside Shuko Aoyama at the 2023 Australian Open. Shibahara climbed to a career-best No. 4 position in the WTA's doubles rankings in March 2022. Catherine Harrison also had a standout 2022, making her Grand Slam singles and doubles debuts. She advanced through singles qualifying at Wimbledon and continued her success with a first-round win. Harrison and partner Ulrikke Eikeri made a doubles second-round appearance at Roland-Garros and the pair went on to accomplish the same feat at Wimbledon and the US Open. Harrison also collected her first WTA title last year, partnering with Sabrina Santamaria to prevail at the Monterrey Open in Mexico. The following Bruins in the professional ranks achieved career-high WTA rankings in 2022: Robin Anderson (No. 137 singles and 181 doubles), Harrison (214 singles and 69 doubles), Elysia Bolton (230 doubles), Chanelle van Nguyen (350 singles) and Jada Hart (489 doubles).
HEAD COACH STELLA SAMPRAS WEBSTER
Head coach Stella Sampras Webster is in her 27th season at the helm of the UCLA women's tennis program, compiling an impressive overall record of 499-184 (.731). She is the second-longest-tenured active coach at UCLA, behind men's tennis head coach Billy Martin. Sampras Webster has guided her alma mater to NCAA championships in 2008 and 2014, the first two in program history. Her teams have finished top-10 nationally in 21 of her 25 completed seasons and in the top five 15 times. Three doubles pairs have won NCAA titles under Sampras Webster's tutelage, most recently Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield in 2019.
Players Mentioned
