Huskies Down Cougars 4-1 to Wrap Up Regular Season

Saturday, April 20

Pullman, WA

12:00 PM

University of Washington

Washington State

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

April 20, 2019 | Women's Tennis

Box Score

PULLMAN, Wash. --- No. 13 Washington put an exclamation point on a fantastic regular-season with a 4-1 victory over No. 35 Washington State in the Boeing Apple Cup Series match between the two on Saturday afternoon in Pullman.

The Huskies wrap up the regular season with an 18-3 record—their most wins since the 2009 season when they went 18-8 en route to an appearance in the NCAA Round of 16. Washington also finishes in a tie for second in the Pac-12 with an 8-2 record, setting a team record for conference wins. The Huskies' previous most Pac-12 wins was six done in 2001 and 2003.

The Cougars (18-9, 3-7 Pac-12) got off to a quick start, winning the doubles point to take an early 1-0 lead in the match. Washington's tandem of Vanessa Wong and Zoey Weil won the first doubles match in dominating fashion, beating Melisa Ates and Yang Lee 6-0 at No. 2 doubles. But Washington State would win the next two matches at No. 1 and No. 3 to clinch the point.

In singles play, the Huskies needed three sets in the first four matches contested but were able to pull out all four matches. With WSU having just four courts in its indoor facility, the matches at No. 1, No. 2, No. 5 and No. 6 were the first to be contested.

Freshman Sedona Gallagher wrapped up a perfect record in her first Pac-12 season with a quick 7-5, 6-2 victory over Aneta Miksovska to knot the overall match at 1-1. Gallagher posted a 9-0 record in Pac-12 play and finished the regular season with a 15-2 dual record.

Next to finish was Stacey Fung at No. 1 singles. Fung was going against the No. 32-ranked singles player Michaela Bayerlova, who got the early drop on Fung with a 6-3 win in the first set. But Fung rallied and took the next two sets in commanding fashion, winning 6-2, 6-2 to put the Huskies up 2-1.

Shortly after, Vanessa Wong finished her match at No. 2 singles with a 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 victory over Hikaru Sato. Wong cruised in the first set but dropped the second set 6-2. She held a commanding 5-1 lead in the third only to see Sato rally and tie things up at 5-5. But Wong would pull out the set by winning the next two games and give UW a 3-1 advantage.

Nika Zupancic then clinched the victory for Washington at No. 6 singles with a hard-fought 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Melisa Ates. Zupancic was even with Ates through much of the match with Ates breaking a 4-4 tie to take the first set. Zupancic then cruised to a relatively easy 6-3 win in the second but trailed 3-2 midway through the third. After tying it up at 4-4, the two split the next two games before Zupancic won the final two games to clinch the match.

Zupancic also finished with a perfect record in Pac-12 play, posting a 6-0 record in conference matches and going 10-1 in dual matches overall.

Kat Kopcalic and Natsuho Arakawa were just getting onto the courts No. 3 and No. 4 singles, respectively, when the match ended.

The Huskies now head to the Pac-12 Championships April 24-27 in Ojai, Calif., before taking part in the NCAA Championships which begin the following week.