Following a two-year hiatus, the 11th-ranked UCSD women’s tennis team, led by head coach Liz LaPlante, is heading back to the NCAA Division II National Tournament.
Moving up:
After completing a regular season during which UCSD went 17-3, the Tritons earned the right to host matches against Cal State Los Angeles and University of Hawaii-Hilo in consecutive days, on May 6 and May 7. The Triton women swept both teams off the court, 5-0, picking up their sixth- and seventh-straight consecutive victories since their loss against Abilene Christian on April 2.
On May 7, the Tritons hit the Northview Courts to take on their rivals, the Hawaii-Hilo Vulcans. The team was all business, taking to the courts in matching yellow tops and white skirts, unified and motivated. The atmosphere was intense, with supporters from both sides coming out in droves to watch the action. But UCSD took control of the match right from the get-go, and never gave the Vulcans a chance.
Doubles play was all UCSD as the Tritons scored victories in all three matchups. No. 3 players senior Jasmin Dao and junior Marissa Hilker took the easiest victory, winning 8-2. At the No. 2 spot, sophomores Katie McKee and Kristin Bronowicki secured two early breaks en route to an 8-4 win. Finally, in the most closely contested doubles match of the day, the top pair of junior Tara Siddiqui and sophomore Marsha Malinow played Hawaii-Hilo’s Mai Fujii and Tiana Lum-Tucker game-for-game all the way until 6-6, when the first break of the match went to UCSD for a 7-6 lead. Then they served out the match, giving UCSD a 3-0 match lead going into singles play, which meant that they needed only two wins for the victory.
“Being up 3-0 after doubles is huge,” LaPlante said. “This definitely helps us going into singles since it’s very hard mentally to be down 0-3 and feel like you have a chance to win. Our doubles have really been playing well and the girls know how important it is to have a good start, and try and win at least two.”
The Tritons got their two singles victories very quickly, thanks to Dao and Malinow. Dao, playing in the final home match of her collegiate career, won 6-0, 6-1 against the Vulcans’ Eve Viquenault, as Malinow defeated Fujii, 6-1, 6-1, for the clincher. With her two victories (in singles and doubles), Malinow avenged both her losses in the first matchup between UCSD and Hawaii-Hilo this season. Because matches during playoffs are played only to decision, play was suspended in all other matches, with Tritons ahead in all but one.
The day before, the Tritons posted a similar effort against Cal State Los Angeles, winning all three doubles matches and picking up two singles victories very quickly for the 5-0 shutout. This time, Siddiqui and junior Leigh Roberts picked up the clinchers for UCSD with 6-0, 6-1 and 6-0, 6-0 victories, respectively.
The 1-6 loss to Hawaii-Hilo in the second round of last year’s Western Regionals that denied UCSD the chance to go to Nationals made this victory even sweeter for the Tritons, who defeated the Vulcans earlier this year in a regular season match, 7-2. Now, along with top-ranked BYU Hawaii, the Tritons will head to Nationals representing the Western Region in a pool of 16 teams in tournament play to determine the top team in the nation. The tournament will be held in Altamonte Springs, Fla. from May 12 to May 15.
“We have a good draw at Nationals,” LaPlante said. “Since the draw is predetermined, there are no seeds; we play a team from the east, which is usually the weakest region, and then most likely will play Armstrong Atlantic, which is ranked ahead of us.”
