UC Davis secures victory over UC San Diego for senior home game
2 doubles and 5 singles wins push UC Davis to victory
By DANIELLE WIRNOWSKI — sports@theaggie.org
On April 4, UC Davis women’s tennis celebrated their seniors: Kaia Wolfe, a fourth-year aerospace and mechanical engineering major; Maya Youssef, a fourth-year political science and psychology major; Mika Ikemori, a third-year psychology major; and Sophia Sappa, a third-year neurobiology major. During their senior home game, the Aggies hosted UC San Diego (UCSD) for a Big West Conference match.
“It’s definitely a little bittersweet,” Youssef said about her final year as an Aggie. “It would be nice to explore other extracurriculars [and] other hobbies, but [tennis] has been pretty much my identity. It’s a little bit of nerves and excitement.”
While the Aggies were meant to play Idaho State University on their senior night and UC San Diego over spring break, the teams needed to reschedule their match due to unforeseen circumstances.
The Aggies started off the match against UCSD strong, winning two out of three doubles matches. Ikemori and her doubles partner, Polina Marakhtanova, a second-year cognitive science major, secured one of the wins with a score of 6-4. Wolfe and her partner Aileena Hu, a third-year human development major, secured a second win with a score of 7-5.
Unfortunately, Youssef and her doubles partner Isabella Bringas, a second-year neurobiology major, fell against the Tritons with a score of 4-6.
“We didn’t play horribly in doubles,” Youssef said. “The important, bigger points — we just weren’t able to close it out. I knew I had to change my mindset going into singles, so I tried to think of the positives and brought that into my singles.”
Youssef came back from this loss in her singles match against the Tritons, winning two out of the three sets. She fell in the first set with a score of 5-7, but came back in the next two sets with scores of 6-4 and 10-6.
“After I had lost my first set, I just took a break; when I was drinking my water, I was like, ‘You know what, let’s just have some fun,’” Youssef said.
Ikemori also won her singles match against UCSD, taking two sets for the Aggies. The first set ended with a score of 7-6, with a tie-breaker score of 10-5. The second set ended with a score of 6-4.
Marakhtanova won her singles match against the Tritons in three sets with a score of 1-6, despite falling short in the second set. Marakhtanova ended her first match with a score of 6-2, bringing that fighting energy back in the third set with a score of 6-3 and securing an Aggie victory.
The Aggies won a total of five singles sets out of six. Penelope Wong, a second-year environmental engineering major, fell short against her opponent but put up a good fight in a third set. Wong won her second set against UCSD with a 7-6 score and a tiebreaker score of 10-4.
With the Aggies only falling to the Tritons twice overall — once in singles and once in doubles — UC Davis secured their victory over UCSD with an overall score of 6-1.
“It felt great,” Youssef said. “I don’t think I would have changed anything. It was a good day. We had a lot of support.”
The Aggies are set to host Sacramento State University on April 16 at 1 p.m. They are also set to participate in the Big West Championship from April 22 to 25 in San Diego, Calif.
Written by: Danielle Wirnowski — sports@theaggie.org