College Feature
Pepperdine, NC State Women Make History in NCAAs
by Rhiannon Potkey, 20 May 2021
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Pepperdine and North Carolina State sprung upsets on Wednesday night to reach the first Final Four in each program’s history.
Fifth-seeded Pepperdine outlasted No. 4 UCLA 4-3 in a marathon NCAA Division I Women’s Championship quarterfinal match at the USTA National Tennis Center in Lake Nona, Florida. Shiori Fukuda clinched the victory for the Waves by rallying for a three-set win.
Sixth-seeded North Carolina State defeated No. 3 Georgia 4-2, with freshman Abigail Rencheli securing the historic win. The Wolfpack had never advanced beyond the third round of the NCAA Championships until this season.
Pepperdine (24-3) plays No. 1 and undefeated North Carolina (30-0) in the semifinals on Friday, while NC State (20-5) plays No. 2 Texas (29-1). UNC defeated rival Duke 4-1 in the quarterfinals and Texas swept No. 7 Florida State 4-0.
The UNC-Duke match didn’t finish until after 1 a.m. in Florida because of the preceding slugfest between Pepperdine and UCLA that lasted 4 hours and 18 minutes and was filled with multiple tiebreaks, a very brief weather delay and three-set battles of attrition.
In the fourth meeting between the SoCal schools this season, Pepperdine won the doubles point when Ashley Lahey and Lisa Zaar rallied from down 2-6 in the tiebreak to beat Jada Hart and Abbey Forbes 7-6(8).
Three singles matches went to first-set tiebreaks, and UCLA grabbed a 2-1 lead with victories on courts five and six. But the Waves rallied back, and Fukuda eventually broke the tie with a 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-2 victory over Vivian Wolff to clinch Pepperdine’s first-ever spot in the Final Four.
Pepperdine and UNC will be a semifinal rematch of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship semifinals on Feb. 6, when the Tar Heels beat the Waves 4-1 on the way to the title.
UNC won the doubles point for the 23rd straight time, but Duke claimed four of the six first sets in singles to briefly gain some momentum. Freshman Fiona Crawley gave UNC more cushion and improved to 29-0 with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Margaryta Bilokin.
Fellow freshman Reilly Tran ran her record to 19-0 with a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 win over Karolina Berankova, and Makenna Jones recovered from being bageled in the first set to beat Meible Chi 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 and clinch the team win at 1:05 a.m. ET.
Friday’s Semifinal Schedule
11 a.m. ET No. 2 seed Texas vs. No. 6 seed NC State
5:30 p.m. ET No. 1 seed North Carolina vs. No. 5 seed Pepperdine
Quarterfinal Results:
No. 6 NC State 4, No. 3 Georgia 2
Doubles
1. #12 Anna Rogers/Alana Smith (NC State) vs. #6 Katarina Jokic/Ariana Arseneault (UGA) 5-6
2. #5 Adriana Reami/Jaeda Daniel (NC State) def. Elena Christofi/Morgan Coppoc (UGA) 6-4
3. #42 Abigail Rencheli/Amelia Rajecki (NC State) def. Lea Ma/Meg Kowalski (UGA) 7-5
Order of finish: 2, 3
Singles
1. #4 Katarina Jokic (UGA) def. #6 Anna Rogers (NC State) 6-2, 6-2
2. #23 Alana Smith (NC State) vs. #55 Lea Ma (UGA) 5-7, 6-4, 1-0, unfinished
3. Adriana Reami (NC State) def. #20 Meg Kowalski (UGA) 6-1, 6-4
4. Jaeda Daniel (NC State) def. #68 Morgan Coppoc (UGA) 6-4, 6-4
5. #82 Abigail Rencheli (NC State) def. #52 Marta Gonzalez (UGA) 6-3, 7-6 (6)
6. Elena Christofi (UGA) def. Lexi Keberle (NC State) 7-5, 6-2
Order of finish: 1, 3, 4, 6, 5
No. 2 Texas 4, No. 7 Florida State 0
Doubles:
1. #19 Kylie Collins/Lulu Sun (UT) def. #30 Victoria Allen/Emmanuelle Salas (FS) 6-3
2. Anna Turati/Fernanda Labrana (UT) def. #8 Nandini Das/Andrea Garcia (FS) 6-1
3. Giulia Pairone/Petra Hule (FS) def. #47 Peyton Stearns/Charlotte Chavatipon (UT) 6-3
Order of finish: 3,2,1
Singles:
1. #37 Peyton Stearns (UT) def. #12 Giulia Pairone (FS) 6-0, 6-1
2. #35 Anna Turati (UT) def. #44 Emmanuelle Salas (FS) 6-1, 6-4
3. #62 Lulu Sun (UT) vs. Nandini Das (FS) 6-3, 6-6 (7-8), unfinished
4. #76 Charlotte Chavatipon (UT) vs. Petra Hule (FS) 6-3, 3-6, 5-2, unfinished
5. #72 Kylie Collins (UT) vs. Victoria Allen (FS) 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 1-1, unfinished
6. Fernanda Labrana (UT) def. Andrea Garcia (FS) 6-2, 2-6, 6-3
Order of finish: 1,2,6
No. 5 Pepperdine 4, No. 4 UCLA 3
Doubles
1. Lahey, Ashley/Zaar, Lisa (PEPP) def. #59 Jada Hart/Abbey Forbes (UCLA) 7-6 (10-8)
2. Fukuda, Shiori/Pachkaleva, Taisiya (PEPP) def. Annette Goulak/Vivian Wolff (UCLA) 6-4
3. Abi Altick/Elysia Bolton (UCLA) def. Iamachkine,Anastasia/Failla, Jessica (PEPP) 7-5
Order of finish: 2,3,1
Singles
1. #7 Abbey Forbes (UCLA) def. #77 Lahey, Ashley (PEPP) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
2. #21 Failla, Jessica (PEPP) def. #50 Jada Hart (UCLA) 7-6 (9-7), 6-4
3. #89 Pachkaleva, Taisiya (PEPP) def. Elysia Bolton (UCLA) 6-3, 1-6, 7-5
4. #118 Fukuda, Shiori (PEPP) def. Vivian Wolff (UCLA) 6-7 (7-9), 6-3, 6-2
5. Abi Altick (UCLA) def. Zaar, Lisa (PEPP) 6-2, 6-3
6. Annette Goulak (UCLA) def. Redelijk, Nikki (PEPP) 7-6 (7-4), 6-3
Order of finish: 5,6,3,2,1,4
No. 1 North Carolina 4, Duke 1
Doubles
1. #10 Meible Chi/Margaryta Bilokin (DU) def. #2 Sara Daavettila/Cameron Morra (UNC) 6-2
2. #4 Makenna Jones/Elizabeth Scotty (UNC) def. #9 Chloe Beck/Karolina Berankova (DU) 6-4
3. #34 Alle Sanford/Reilly Tran (UNC) def. #41 Kelly Chen/Georgia Drummy (DU) 7-5
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3
Singles
1. #2 Sara Daavettila (UNC) vs. #49 Kelly Chen (DU) 6-1, 2-6, 4-3, unfinished
2. #41 Alexa Graham (UNC) vs. #19 Georgia Drummy (DU) 4-6, 7-6 (5), 3-0, unfinished
3. #39 Chloe Beck (DU) def. #27 Cameron Morra (UNC) 6-1, 6-4
4. #32 Makenna Jones (UNC) def. #40 Meible Chi (DU) 0-6, 6-4, 6-4
5. #36 Fiona Crawley (UNC) def. Margaryta Bilokin (DU) 6-1, 6-0
6. #117 Reilly Tran (UNC) def. Karolina Berankova (DU) 5-7, 6-1, 6-1
Order of finish: 5, 3, 6, 4
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About Rhiannon Potkey
Rhiannon Potkey is a veteran sportswriter with more than two
decades of experience in journalism. Potkey has covered many
sports at many levels and has a passion for finding great stories.
Potkey has covered the U.S. Open, junior sectional and national
events, college conference championships and Davis Cup matches.
Potkey is currently Content Strategist for Tennis Recruiting. You
can reach Rhiannon by email at
[email protected].
