{"id":641885,"date":"2026-05-02T00:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T00:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/641885\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T00:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T00:10:09","slug":"womens-tennis-edges-san-diego-state-in-ncaa-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/641885\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Tennis Edges San Diego State in NCAA Opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEMPE, Ariz. \u2013 The UCLA women’s tennis team overcame a 3-1 deficit and desert heat to take down San Diego State 4-3 Friday in an NCAA Championship first-round marathon at Whiteman Tennis Center. Olivia Center<\/a> delivered the deciding point, capping a four-hour match.<\/p>\n

The Bruins (17-7), who never led until the final point, mounted their comeback on the bottom singles courts. Ahmani Guichard<\/a> (Court 6), Bianca Fernandez<\/a> (Court 4) and Center (Court 5) won in order. Mayu Crossley<\/a> pulled UCLA level after the Aztecs (20-4) claimed the doubles point. Gloria Alogo and Jo-Yee Chan were victorious in singles play for San Diego State.<\/p>\n

The Aztecs seized the closely-contested doubles point with wins on Courts 1 and 3. Alogo\/Liisa Varul outlasted Kayla Chung<\/a>\/Ahmani Guichard<\/a> 7-5 on Court 3 to establish an edge. Each of the remaining matchups was destined for a tiebreaker. Just one would finish, though, with Chan\/Vessa Turley taking down No. 24 Center\/Kate Fakih<\/a> 7-6(3) on Court 1.<\/p>\n

San Diego State kept momentum in its corner, collecting three singles first sets. No. 34 Crossley quickly rode hers to a victory, however, tying the score with a 6-3, 6-0 showing opposing Ninon Martinache on Court 2.<\/p>\n

The Aztecs were not fazed, prevailing twice more to near the overall win. Chan handed No. 15 Lutkemeyer a 7-5, 6-3 defeat on Court 1 and Alogo added a 7-5, 6-0 display against Fakih on Court 3.<\/p>\n

Guichard withstood a late rally from Teja Tirunelveli, holding on for a 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 victory that cut San Diego State’s lead to 3-2. Fernandez then evened matters up once more, outlasting Jayna Clemens 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-2 on Court 4.<\/p>\n

With all eyes on Court 5 and nearly a full set to be played, Center took control to complete the comeback. It was also a personal comeback for Center, who trailed 4-6, 4-5 before claiming her team-high sixth clincher of the season by a 4-6, 7-6(0), 6-3 margin.<\/p>\n

The Bruins advance to face No. 16 seed and host Arizona State in Saturday’s second round. First serve is scheduled for 12 p.m. PT. The Sun Devils beat Denver 4-0 Friday.<\/p>\n

Tennis Match Results

\nSan Diego State vs UCLA

\n5\/1\/2026 at Tempe, AZ

\n(Whiteman Tennis Center)<\/p>\n

#18 UCLA 4, #51 San Diego State 3<\/p>\n

Singles competition

\n1. Jo-Yee Chan (SDSU) def. #15 Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer<\/a> (UCLA) 7-5, 6-3

\n2. #34 Mayu Crossley<\/a> (UCLA) def. Ninon Martinache (SDSU) 6-3, 6-0

\n3. Gloria Alogo (SDSU) def. Kate Fakih<\/a> (UCLA) 7-5, 6-0

\n4. Bianca Fernandez<\/a> (UCLA) def. Jayna Clemens (SDSU) 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2

\n5. Olivia Center<\/a> (UCLA) def. Vesa Gjinaj (SDSU) 4-6, 7-6 (7-0), 6-3

\n6. Ahmani Guichard<\/a> (UCLA) def. Teja Tirunelveli (SDSU) 6-1, 3-6, 7-5<\/p>\n

Doubles competition

\n1. Jo-Yee Chan\/Vessa Turley (SDSU) def. #24 Olivia Center<\/a>\/Kate Fakih<\/a> (UCLA) 7-6 (7-3)

\n2. Jayna Clemens\/Ninon Martinache (SDSU) vs. #64 Mayu Crossley<\/a>\/Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer<\/a> (UCLA) 6-6 (3-3), unfinished

\n3. Gloria Alogo\/Liisa Varul (SDSU) def. Kayla Chung<\/a>\/Ahmani Guichard<\/a> (UCLA) 7-5<\/p>\n

Match Notes:

\nSan Diego State 20-4; National ranking #51

\nUCLA 17-7; National ranking #18

\nOrder of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (2,1,3,6,4,5)

\nNCAA Championship – First Round<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEMPE, Ariz. \u2013 The UCLA women’s tennis team overcame a 3-1 deficit and desert heat to take down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-641885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}