Top Seed UCLA Beats Vanderbilt 4-1 in ITA Team Indoor Opening Round

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Charlottesville, VA--

The defending champions survived a determined challenge in the opening round of the ITA Women's Indoor, with UCLA earning a 4-1 victory over Vanderbilt Friday afternoon.

The doubles point came down to tiebreakers, after UCLA's Kyle McPhillips and Chanelle Van Nguyen had won 8-4 on court 3 over Vanderbilt's Frances Altick and Georgia Sellyn. Vanderbilt's top team of Courtney Colton and Lauren Mira earned the win at 1, dominating the tiebreaker against UCLA's Robin Anderson and Skylar Morton, leaving it up to court 2. UCLA's Pamela Montez and Courtney Dolehide and Vanderbilt's Ashleigh Antal and Marie Casares were just starting their tiebreaker when court 1 finished, so they were aware it would decide the doubles point. At 4-4 in the tiebreaker, Antal made an unforced error and Montez had the point on her racquet. Dolehide, committed poaching aggressively at the net, put away winners on consecutively points to give UCLA the 1-0 lead.

In the singles, Anderson showed no mercy at No. 1, taking out Mira 6-0, 6-0.  The third and fourth points were harder to come by for the Bruins, currently ranked No. 2 behind Florida, who is not participating in the Team Indoor again this year. Antal gave Vanderbilt its point with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Dolehide at line 6, and it was another half an hour before Montez earned point No. 3 for UCLA with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Casares. Vanderbilt had hope when freshman Courtney Colton forced a third set against UCLA's Kyle McPhillips, also a freshman, but McPhillips had a quick 4-0 lead that eliminated much of the drama. Hitting freely and making almost no errors, McPhillips closed out Colton 6-2, 4-6, 6-0 to put UCLA into Saturday's quarterfinal against Miami.

UCLA 4, Vanderbilt 1

Singles competition:
1. #6 Robin Anderson (UCLA) def. Lauren Mira (VU) 6-0, 6-0
2. #47 Kyle McPhillips (UCLA) def. #102 Courtney Colton (VU) 6-2, 4-6, 6-0
3. #96 Pamela Montez (UCLA) def. #91 Marie Casares (VU) 6-4, 6-2
4. Chanelle Van Nguyen (UCLA) vs. Georgina Sellyn (VU) 6-4, 5-5, unfinished
5. Catherine Harrison (UCLA) vs. #115 Frances Altick (VU) 4-6, 6-3, 1-2, unfinished
6. Ashleigh Antal (VU) def. Courtney Dolehide (UCLA) 6-3, 6-1

Doubles competition:
1. Lauren Mira/Courtney Colton (VU) def. #16 Robin Anderson/Skylar Morton (UCLA) 8-7 (7-3)
2. Courtney Dolehide/Pamela Montez (UCLA) def. Ashleigh Antal/Marie Casares (VU) 8-7 (7-4)
3. Kyle McPhillips/Chanelle Van Nguyen (UCLA) def. Frances Altick/Georgina Sellyn (VU) 8-4

Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (1,6,3,2)