Big West Tennis Championships at Indian Wells Tennis Gardens on Thursday, April 26, 2018 in Indian Wells, California. (Photo/Josh Barber)
4
Winner UC Riverside UCR (6-18)
2
UC Irvine UCI (9-16)
Winner
UC Riverside UCR
(6-18)
4
Final
2
UC Irvine UCI
(9-16)

Match Recap: Women's Tennis |

Women's Tennis Tops UC Irvine 4-2 in First Round of the Big West Championship

INDIAN WELLS, Calif.— The 9th seeded UC Riverside Women's Tennis Team (6-18) is moving on to the Quarter-Finals of the 2018 Big West Championship after defeating 8th seeded UC Irvine (9-16) 4-2 in the first round, Thursday morning. The Highlanders and the Anteaters met in the regular season just this past Saturday, as UCI took the match 4-3, but UCR was prepared for the rematch winning four singles matchups to seal its first conference tournament victory since 2009.

The Anteaters had a quick start taking a 1-0 lead with two wins in the doubles round, but the Highlanders answered in singles play winning the first two matches on the upper courts.

Tia Elpusan tied the overall match at 1-1 as the freshman won all but one game in her 6-1, 6-0 straight-set sweep over Vivien Dvali on court two. Senior Karla Dualy followed on court one defeating Stephanie Hazell 6-0, 6-3 to give UCR its first lead of the match.

UC Irvine took its only singles win on court three to ice the match at 2-2, but two Highlanders would comeback to win in three sets on the lower courts to push their team into the next round.

After falling 6-2 in the first set, sophomore Lauren Wolfe battled back to win the final two sets on court five dropping Arianna Tilbury 2-6, 6-3, 6-1. UC Riverside needed just one more singles win to take the overall match and had the advantage on both of the remaining courts. Junior Tracy Van found herself in a familiar situation on court six with UCI's Jacqueline Tsodikova, who Van defeated in three sets just a few days before, as she again dropped the first set to Tsodikova. With the match on the line, Van won 12 of the final 14 games and emerged victorious clinching the overall match for UCR 4-2 with her 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 win.

Senior co-captain Chloe Pham held a 6-1, 5-5 advantage over Yulin Chen on court four before play was stopped.

The Highlanders now move on to the Quarter-Final round of the tournament tomorrow where they will face the top-seeded UC Santa Barbara Gauchos. The match is set for Friday at 9:00 AM at the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens.