She was up against all odds.
Nobody could have guessed that she would be able to pull off a victory, and things certainly didn’t look as if they were going her way at the end of the first set.
But freshman Ashley Joelson of the UCLA women’s tennis team completed the upset to topple No. 76 Jessica Nguyen of the undefeated Stanford Cardinal 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in the Pac-10 Invitational Singles Championships.
“It felt really good to get the win,” Joelson said. “That was the first college tournament that I’ve won.”
Nguyen, the younger sister of UCLA men’s tennis player Jason Nguyen, came into the match with just two losses this season, one to No. 8 Zsuzsanna Fodor of California and No. 14 Cristelle Grier of Northwestern.
In the rounds leading up to the tournament final, the Stanford freshman had dropped a total of just five games, equalling the number of games Joelson had dropped in the first set of her semifinal match.
“She pretty much killed everyone and didn’t give up many games, so I was a little worried going into the match because I didn’t really know what she would be coming out with,” Joelson said. “But at the same time I knew that I was playing some of the best tennis I’ve played.”
Joelson, who had very little time to worry about what her opponent would come out with, came out with a fire of her own, capturing the first set and continuing to play her best tennis.
However, it seemed as though that level of tennis started to emerge on the other side of the court in the second set as Nguyen fought to equalize the match.
“She started playing a lot better as the match went on,” Joelson said of her opponent.
“I was just trying to be consistent with her. I knew she would get on a roll and string together some good points, and I would have to fight back.”
Joelson fought back to capture not only the third set and the match, but also her first collegiate tournament title.
Competing in the same draw as Joelson were Bruin sophomore Elizabeth Lumpkin and freshman Anna-Viktoria Lind.
Both lost in their quarterfinal matches. Lind fell to Marian Ravelojaona of Cal 7-5, 6-4 and Lumpkin to Nguyen in three sets 6-1, 6-1.
“She just played the bigger points a lot better than I did during that match,” Lumpkin said of Nguyen in their quarterfinal meeting.
In the main Pac-10 singles draw, the only member of the UCLA team remaining after the first day of action was senior Laura Gordon. But her run ended the next day in the quarterfinals, where she suffered a three-set loss to the tournament’s top seed, Alice Barnes of Stanford, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
In the Pac-10 doubles draw, however, Gordon was able to make it past the quarterfinals by teaming up with sophomore Riza Zalameda. They made it to the semifinals before losing to the tournament’s second-seeded team, Susie Babos and Suzi Fodor of Cal, 8-4.
“We started off strong, but they started playing better,” Gordon said. “It just wasn’t our day, and it was a tough loss.”
The Bruins now await the May 3 announcement of where they will be competing in their NCAA Regionals. If UCLA comes out as the winner in the regionals, they will advance to the NCAA Championships, which are being held at Stanford this year.