Freshman Jennifer Brady clinched UCLA's 4-3 win against No. 4 Stanford.
STANFORD, Calif. -- No. 3 UCLA snapped defending NCAA Champion Stanford's 19-match winning streak on Friday afternoon in the Bay Area, edging the Cardinal 4-3 in a thrilling encounter at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium. With the win, UCLA remains undefeated in the Pac-12 at 6-0 and ups its overall record on the season to 18-1. Stanford, which had not lost since April 19 of last year, falls to 13-1 overall and 5-1 in conference play.
Wins by UCLA at court No. 3 and Stanford at court No. 1 in doubles meant that the point ultimately came down to court No. 2, where UCLA's fifth-ranked Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips were taking on the 36th-ranked Stanford duo of Taylor Davidson and Ellen Tsay. Despite getting down a break early in the match, McPhillips and Harrison were able to battle back, eventually winning 8-6 to give the Bruins the 1-0 advantage heading into singles.
Once singles play began, Stanford struck first, taking two quick straight-set wins at court Nos. 3 and 6 to take a 2-1 lead. McPhillips then evened things up at court No. 4, where she downed Davidson 6-4, 6-0 to make it 2-2.
In a battle of top-five opponents at court No. 1, fourth-ranked Robin Anderson rebounded after losing the first set to second-ranked Kristie Ahn, losing just three games in the final two sets for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory. Although UCLA was up 3-2 at that point, Stanford knotted the score at 3-3 just seconds later, as Tsay downed Harrison, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 at court No. 5.
With the outcome of the match solely on her shoulders, freshman Jennifer Brady stepped up in a big way on Friday, downing sophomore Krista Hardebeck 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to give UCLA the 4-3 victory against its Pac-12 rival.
