Texas Women Defeat Pepperdine 4-3 to Claim NCAA Team Title; Sheltons Secure Florida's First Men's Team Championship with 4-1 Win over Baylor

Lulu Sun surrounded by Texas teammates and trophy
photo credit: USTA/Manuela Davies

The doubles point takes on outsize significance in any match that ends up 4-3, and in the NCAA Division I women's team final Saturday night at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona it set the tone for a riveting match that ended with the Texas Longhorns defeating the Pepperdine Waves to claim the 2021 National Championship.

Texas head coach Howard Joffe called the doubles match an odyssey, and for an hour momentum shifted back and forth on two of three courts that would decide it.

Pepperdine dominated on court 2, with Shiori Fukuda and Taisiya Pachkaleva rolling past Fernanda Labrana and Anna Turati 6-1 to put all the pressure on Texas the rest of the way. Longhorns Kylie Collins and Lulu Sun saw their 4-2 lead over Ashley Lahey and Lisa Zaar vanish at line 1, losing a deciding point serving at 4-3. Lahey and Zaar saved a deciding point in the next game to go up 5-4, and when the 40-15 lead Sun had serving disappeared into a deciding point, Pepperdine had it first opportunity to put the double point on its side of the ledger. But Texas held for 5-all.

It was also 5-5 at line 3, with Texas's Peyton Stearns and Charlotte Chavatipon holding on a deciding point to go up 6-5.

Back at court 1, Zaar had held on a deciding point to give Pepperdine a 6-5 lead, and with Collins serving to stay in the match, she went down 30-40. But some good serving and net play saved those two match points, and that vaulted them into the tiebreaker, which they led by 5-0 before closing it out 6-3.

In the tiebreaker on court 3, Pepperdine led 5-3, but Texas blitzed through the next four points, with Stearns crushing a forehand winner at 6-5 to give the Longhorns the doubles point.

If Pepperdine was deflated from failing to capitalize on their chances in doubles, it didn't show in the singles, with the Waves taking first sets on four courts, while Texas could manage just two. But freshman Stearns pumped new life into the Longhorns chances at line 1 against Lahey, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the second set after losing the first 6-2. 

Chavatipon made it 2-0 Texas with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Shiori Fukuda at line 4.  That win was particularly satisfying for the freshman, who had been on the losing end of the last match on in the only loss the Longhorns had suffered this year: the final of the ITA Team Indoor against North Carolina.

"At the National Indoors, Charlotte had some problems and unraveled a little bit, and another player or two, it certainly wasn't all on Charlotte, but our team met after that and discussed what was the failing, if you want to call it that. Each lady spoke and the consensus was nothing to do with the tennis. All just to do with whatever the cheap word is, poise."

Now halfway to the title, the Texas fans were heartened by Stearns' turnaround, which included eight straight games to give herself a 2-0 lead in the third set.

Failla got Pepperdine a much needed early point with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Anna Turati at line 2, and Pepperdine tied it when Zaar defeated Collins 6-3, 7-6(3) at line 5. At line 3, Sun had taken the first set from Pachkaleva 6-4 and was up a break in the second set, but she couldn't hold it, and Pachkaleva took the subsequent tiebreaker 7-6(3) to send it to a third.

With the vocal assistance of the Texas men's team, which had lost in the semifinals last night, Stearns closed out Lahey 2-6, 6-0, 6-2 to give Texas the 3-2 lead. Pepperdine's Nikki Redelijk saved six break points in her final two service games of the second set against Malaika Rapolu and broke her fellow freshman for a 6-4, 7-5 win at line 6, making it 3-3.

All eyes then turned to court 3, with Sun and Pachkaleva at 1-1 in the third, with the two freshman set to decide who would take home the championship. Each won a deciding point to stay on serve, with Sun up 4-3, but Pachkaleva put herself in danger again in the next game, and she lost the 30-40 point when Sun's backhand forced an error.

Serving for the match at 5-3, Sun won the first point, but that was it, as Pachkaleva dug in to break, then held at love for 5-all. Sun saw her 40-0 lead in the next game slip to 40-30, but she crushed a backhand winner to avoid a deciding point and go up 6-5. 

Both players were hitting out on their shots and keeping the ball deep, but in the next game, with Pachkaleva again serving to stay in the match, Sun changed it up a bit. At 30-all, Sun hit a short ball that brought Pachkaleva in, and she couldn't control her response, sending a backhand long. On match point, Sun again used her left-handed advantage for another short angle, forcing an error from Pachkaleva that gave Texas its first National Team title since 1995, and third overall.

Sun said she barely heard the raucous crowd, swelled by the Florida fans who had come two hours earlier for the men's final, but were now fully engaged in the women's dramatic finish.

"Honestly I wasn't thinking about that (being the deciding point)," said the 20-year-old from Switzerland. "I didn't hear the crowd; it was just me and Howard and the girl. That was my focus, and I think it really helped me win the match."

"I know we were both tired at the end, but I knew if I kept being aggressive I would have the upper hand, especially if I used my forehand. So I just kept thinking, do your game, focus on this moment."

Head coach Howard Joffe pronounced himself speechless after the match.

"When Lulu won the final point, it was a little bit of disbelief," Joffe said. "Elation and disbelief. You can throw together six of the best players out there in the country, and you are guaranteed nothing. Certainly North Carolina were probably the favorite, they had a 48 match winning streak going into yesterday, so you're just never guaranteed anything. I just had a good sense, and this isn't a scientific word, that the juju of this team was very good and I felt like one way or the other, we'd get over the line today. But the idea that we'd actually get to the final, with the obstacles and the difficulty and the inexperience, it really is a pretty remarkable dream really."

For Pepperdine coach Per Nilsson, taking his team to the program's first final was some consolation, as was the way his team competed in the final.

"It was our theme for this week, to put on a show for the crowd," Nilsson said. "I told the girls, yes, we want to win, but at the same time we want to show the people what Pepperdine tennis is all about, that they would enjoy what was going on out there. I think we did. We have to grow college tennis, and it has to be fun for people to come and watch...that was the theme, to show these crowds a good time."

Florida celebrates its first men's team title
photo credit: USTA/Manuela Davies

The Florida fans certainly enjoyed their Saturday night, with the top-seeded Gators rebounding from the loss of the doubles point to claim the program's first National Team title with a convincing and historic 4-1 victory over No. 2 seed Baylor. 

In contrast to the women's doubles point, the men's was devoid of any twists and turns, with Florida's Ben Shelton and Sam Riffice taking the set at line 2 with a 6-0 decision over Nick Stachowiak and Matias Soto. Line 3 then went to Baylor, with Charlie Broom and Finn Bass beating Will Grant and Brian Berdusco 6-1. By that time Baylor's Constantin Frantzen and Sven Lah had gotten a break at line 1, and they went on to close out Johannes Ingildsen and Duarte Vale 6-2.

It took over an hour for all the first sets to be completed, with each team getting three, meaning that Florida had to force a third set somewhere. That split came at line 5, with freshman  Shelton rebounding from a 6-3 first set loss to Broom with a 6-1 second set, and Blaise Bicknell up a break in the second in his match with Stachowiak. 

In contrast, Baylor could not get another point on the board, nor could they turn around any of the three matches in which they had lost the first set, so when the dominoes started falling for Florida the end came quickly.

Andy Andrade tied it with a 7-6(6), 6-0 win over Sven Lah at line 3, quickly followed by Sam Riffice's 7-5, 6-3 victory over Matias Soto at line 2. Josh Goodger had saved a set point serving at 4-5 in the second set at line 6, then broke Spencer Furman and held for a 6-3, 7-5 victory and Florida's third point.

And then, in a ending that would be considered too unrealistic for Hollywood, it came down to Shelton, the son of head coach Bryan Shelton, who would have the opportunity to clinch the championship. 

Serving at 4-2, Shelton fell behind 15-40, but he ignored any doubt he had or pressure he might have felt, hitting out on those three break points and getting to 5-2 with a massive forehand winner. A discouraged Broom was no match for Shelton and the animated Gator supporters, with Shelton storming through the final game to earn a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory and a national title.

Bryan Shelton had nothing but praise for his son, who was not heading in the direction of tennis until late in his adolescence.

"Tennis wasn't going to be his sport," Shelton said. "Then something flipped and he started coming out and training, and I think God had a plan for him. To see him develop and get to this stage, to play on a team like this, a very, very special team, for him to be a major part of that, it's really, really cool. To see him shine on the biggest stage, under the lights tonight, here at the USTA National Campus, I'm just really proud of him, proud of our guys."

Bryan Shelton does not focus on his son's court during the matches, with Ben saying that isn't necessary.

"Me and my dad know each other pretty well," said the 18-year-old left-hander. "He could be six courts away and I get a little look from him and I know what I just did was probably something I shouldn't have done, or something's that's good and I should probably do again. We don't have to be in each other's face to know what the other is thinking or to move in the right direction in the match."

His father made NCAA tennis history tonight, becoming the first coach to win both a women's and a men's NCAA title, with Shelton getting his women's title with Georgia Tech back in 2007. 

Shelton said he has gotten the question about making history with a second title often in the past few years but was never motivated by it.

"I haven't thought about it too much," Shelton said. "A lot of people like to ask that question as we move through the tournament each year, and I always say, I'm not sure. Winning is great, don't get me wrong, I love winning and I'm super, super competitive. But seeing people develop and get better, that's what it's all about. The championships are great, and we have that, but the relationships are what really matter. And so I really focus on the relationships, rather than the number of wins and by doing that, you end up getting a lot more and you end up developing some champions along the way, whether they win on the court or not."

Texas 4, Pepperdine 3

Doubles

1. #19 Kylie Collins/Lulu Sun (UT) def. Ashley Lahey/Lisa Zaar (PEPP) 7-6(3)

2. Shiori Fukuda/Taisiya Pachkaleva (PEPP) d. Fernanda Labrana/Anna Turati (UT) 6-1

3. #47 Charlotte Chavatipon/Peyton Stearns (UT) d. Anastasia Iamachkine/Jessica Failla (PEPP) 7-6(5)

Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3) Singles (4,2,5,1,6,3)

Singles

1. #37 Peyton Stearns (UT) def. #77 Ashley Lahey (PEPP) 2-6, 6-0, 6-2

2. #21 Jessica Failla (PEPP) def. #35 Anna Turati (UT) 6-2, 6-3

3. #62 Lulu Sun (UT) def. #89 Taisiya Pachkaleva (PEPP) 6-4, 6-7(3), 7-5 

4. #76 Charlotte Chavatipon (UT) def. #118 Shiori Fukuda (PEPP) 6-3, 6-2 

5. Lisa Zaar (PEPP) def. #72 Kylie Collins (UT) 6-3, 7-6(3)

6. Nikki Redelijk (PEPP) def. Malaika Rapolu (UT) 6-4, 7-5

Match Notes:

PEPP 25-4; National ranking #5

Texas 31-1; National ranking #2

Texas - #2 National Seed, Pepperdine - #5 National Seed 

T-4:01 

A-800

Florida 4, Baylor 1 

Doubles

1. #9 Sven Lah/Constantin Frantzen (BU) def. Johannes Ingildsen/Duarte Vale (UF) 6-2 

2. Ben Shelton/Sam Riffice (UF) def. #75 Nick Stachowiak/Matias Soto (BU) 6-0
3. Charlie Broom/Finn Bass (BU) def. Will Grant/Brian Berdusco (UF) 6-1 

Singles

1. #4 Duarte Vale (UF) vs. #21 Adrian Boitan (BU) 5-7, 3-4, unfinished
2. #6 Sam Riffice (UF) def. #11 Matias Soto (BU) 7-5, 6-3
3. #18 Andy Andrade (UF) def. Sven Lah (BU) 7-6(6), 6-0
4. #51 Blaise Bicknell (UF) vs. Nick Stachowiak (BU) 3-6, 6-4, 1-1, unfinished 

5. Ben Shelton (UF) def. Charlie Broom (BU) 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 

6. #79 Josh Goodger (UF) def. Spencer Furman (BU) 6-3, 7-5 

Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (3,2,6,5)

Match Notes:
Baylor 34-5; National ranking #1
Florida Gators 26-2; National ranking #2
Florida - #1 National Seed, Baylor - #2 National Seed

T-2:12 

A-800