Washington Advances to NCAA Round of 16 With 4-0 Win Over Princeton

Saturday, May 4

Seattle, WA

3:00 PM

University of Washington

Princeton

Natsuho Arakawa and Kenadi Hance Celebtrate winning the doubles point

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

Washington Advances to NCAA Round of 16 With 4-0 Win Over Princeton

May 04, 2019 | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

SEATTLE --- The Washington women's tennis won its first NCAA Tournament Second Round match in 10 years thanks in large part to its lone two seniors who came up huge in what could be their final home matches as UW beat No. 34 Princeton 4-0 on Saturday afternoon at Quillian Tennis Stadium.

The Huskies improve to 21-4 on the season, matching the most wins since the program joined the NCAA in 1987. Washington won 21 matches in 2001 and 2004 with the program record of 25 coming in 1980.

The Huskies also win their first NCAA Tournament second round match since upsetting USC in Los Angeles in 2009. UW had lost three of its last four second-round matches, but now advance to the round of 16 for the fifth time.

The match was much closer than the final score would indicate, but the Huskies were able to pull out a thrilling win in doubles with senior Kenadi Hance and junior Natshuo Arakawa coming through with a tiebreaker win. Then in singles play, it was fellow senior Stacey Fung recording her first clinching victory of the year on court one to give the Huskies the win.

"The match was unbelievable," said Head Coach Robin Stephenson. "It was 4-0 but the score line was a lot closer than that. Our girls battled so hard. They've been battling so hard all year. For it to come down to a senior to clinch the doubles point and for it to come down to Stacey to clinch was pretty cool. I'm really proud of them. They've turned this program around. For every one of our girls, it's been a lot of hard work, a lot of commitment. We're going to the Sweet 16; it's pretty exciting!"

Washington won the doubles point in dramatic fashion, taking the win in a tiebreaker on court three. After a stunning 6-1 loss by Fung and Zupancic at No. 1 doubles, Vanessa Wong and Zoey Weil tied up things with a 6-2 victory on court two. The doubles point would be decided on court three as Hance and Arakawa looked to be in control up 5-3 when the other two matches ended. Despite holding a pair of match points in the next game and a third match point up 5-4, Princeton would rally back and take a 6-5 lead. Hance and Arakawa quickly tied things up at 6-6, then broke a 5-5 tie in the tiebreaker with a pair of winners to win the match.

Hance picked up her 26th doubles victory of the year to move her to within one of the program record of 27 set by Joyce Ardies in 2009-10.

Washington got a pair of quick victories once singles began and took the first set on five of six courts. Arakawa was the first off, winning her match against clare McKee on court four 6-4, 6-2. A few minutes later, Wong rallied from a 4-2 deficit in the second set to win 6-3, 7-5 against Brianna Shvets.

Fung then would close out the match with a convincing win on court one, beating Stephanie Schrage 6-4, 6-2. Trailing 4-3 in the first set, Fung rallied to win the next three games and take the first set. She then jumped out to a 3-0 lead and cruised to a 6-2 win to clinch the match.

Kat Kopcalic lost her first set on court three 6-4, but rallied to tie the second set 6-6 and led 4-1 in the tiebreaker when the match ended. Sedona Gallagher and Zupancic were midway through the third sets when the match ended on courts five and six, respectively.

Washington improves to 8-0 in home NCAA Tournament matches.

The Huskies advance to the NCAA Super Region round and will play either No. 7 UCLA or No. 28 LSU next week. Those two teams play their second-round match on Sunday. If UCLA wins, the Huskies travel to LA for the first time this season. However, if LSU wins, Washington would host the Tigers in Seattle.