Elise Wagle pumped her fist in the air when Terrapin Danielle Hack’s return went just beyond the sideline.
The No. 63 senior left the court victorious in what could be the last time she clinches a dual-match victory for the Bruins.
“It ended up working out because I haven’t finished a match in like five matches,” Wagle said. “I was like, ‘Huh, this is something I feel like I haven’t been familiar with in a while.'”
With Wagle’s 6-3, 6-2 singles win providing the finishing touches, No. 19 UCLA women’s tennis (14-7, 9-3 Big Ten) posted a 4-0 sweep of Maryland (14-10, 7-5) on Friday afternoon at the Los Angeles Tennis Center in its penultimate regular-season match of 2025. The victory marks seven in a row for the Bruins, who hold the second-longest active win streak in the Big Ten.
Sophomore Ahmani Guichard and junior Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer picked up the first doubles set with a 6-2 win over Maryland’s Tamari Gagoshidze and Oliwia Orlinska.
No. 66 Hack and Kallista Liu, Maryland’s only ranked duo, were moved off the top spot – where they played their last match – to face No. 6 freshmen Olivia Center and Kate Fakih on court two.
Liu and Hack upset the freshman tandem 6-4, handing Center and Fakih their first loss since March 28, when they fell to Ohio State’s No. 15 Teah Chavez and Luciana Perry.
“You can’t expect them (Fakih and Center) to win every match,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “We’re fortunate we’ve got really good teams who can win at every position.”
While it may be unusual for a top-10 doubles tandem playing on court two, the Bruins have won 16-of-18 doubles points when Center and Fakih aren’t at the helm of the lineup – including Friday.
For the fourth match in a row, No. 18 senior Kimmi Hance and Wagle picked up a win on the top court – a 6-4 victory over Diya Challa and Ema Kovacevic that gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead.
“We’ve both realized that these might be the last times we’re playing here on these courts,” Wagle said. “Mutually just taking in every moment – it’s not every day that you get to play in front of a stadium like this.”
Although Center, Guichard and Fakih all dropped their first sets to open singles on the backcourts, the Terrapins weren’t able to punch out a win before the Bruins’ veteran trio – Hance, Lutktemeyer and Wagle – swept their opponents in straight sets, sealing the shutout.
“Looking back at where they were in January, February and where they are now, it’s just really neat to see them really coming together and playing some good tennis,” Sampras Webster said.
UCLA, who dropped from No. 6 to No. 30 in the national rankings – after losing two of its three matches at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in February – and later lost five of seven matches between March 1 and March 28, has seen its fair share of lows this season.
But the team seems to be on a high – a seven-match one to be exact – as they enter Senior Day on Saturday against Rutgers.
“It’s probably one of the saddest days of the season for me, because they (Hance and Wagle) are leaving,” Lutkemeyer said. “But I’m so proud of them, and I’m so excited to celebrate them.”
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