NCAA Women’s Tennis Tournament : No. 1 Florida Rises Above UCLA and Its Crowd, 5-4

In the span of 24 hours, the tranquil L.A. Tennis Center at UCLA was transformed into the West Coast twin of the tennis complex at the University of Georgia.

Every year, a number of teams complain about the disruptiveness of the rowdy, barking fans at the men’s National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament in Athens, Ga.

After No. 1-seeded Florida beat No. 4 UCLA, 5-4, in the NCAA women’s team semifinals Saturday, the Gators were claiming they were subjected to the toughest treatment this side of Athens.

“It was like a football game,” said Florida’s No. 2 singles player, Shaun Stafford.

Her coach, Andy Brandi, said the semifinal was the most exciting match he’s ever been involved in.

What made the UCLA-Florida semifinal so different was that it was played before a spirited crowd of 2,000, which is believed to be an NCAA women’s tennis record.

“That was a great college tennis match,” UCLA Coach Bill Zaima said. “I’m very, very proud of my players. This is really going to help women’s college tennis in Southern California, for so many people to see such a great show. It was the most vocal crowd we’ve ever had.”

Said Brandi: “I think it was wonderful.”

Consider:

--Five of the six singles matches went to three sets, and when it was finished, the score was Florida 3, UCLA 3.

--Six of the 17 singles sets went to tiebreakers. The three closest matches were Halle Cioffi’s 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 victory over UCLA’s Allyson Cooper in No. 1; Jessica Emmons’ 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 win over Stafford in No. 2, and Maria LaFranchi 2-6, 7-6, 6-3 defeat of Florida’s Siobhan Nicholson in No. 6. It was Stafford’s first dual match loss of the season and Nicholson’s second.

--There were also two improbable comebacks. Florida’s Nicole Arendt fought off two match points before defeating Kirsten Dreyer, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5, in No. 3. And Holly Danforth of Florida, trailing, 6-2, 5-3, rallied to beat Joni Urban, 2-6, 7-6, 6-1, in No. 5.

--The first two doubles matches ended, and the match was still tied: Florida 4, UCLA 4. Finally, Florida clinched it when Stafford and Holly Danforth beat Emmons and Urban, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, as Emmons hit a volley long.

“This was probably the closest match ever,” Stafford said.

So, what’s next for the winner of the so-called closest match in history?

A meeting today at 1 p.m. in the final against two-time defending champion Stanford. After the UCLA-Florida warmup, the Cardinal’s 5-1 victory over No. 3 USC seemed almost routine. But it wasn’t, as five of the six singles matches went three sets. Trisha Laux was the only winner for USC as she defeated Lisa Green, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, at No. 1.

“This was a great day for women’s college tennis,” said Stanford Coach Frank Brennan, whose team is second seeded. “It was a great crowd. I was very excited when I got here and heard the crowd. I thought they probably wouldn’t stay for us, but they did. It was a good, solid, evenly-balanced crowd.”

This opinion wasn’t being shared by several of Florida’s players, in particular, Stafford.

“To tell you the truth, the UCLA fans helped me win the match,” said Stafford, who made five unforced errors and double-faulted once in the decisive third-set tiebreaker of her singles match.

“They got us so fired up. It was like they were cheering against us instead of for UCLA. . . . I don’t expect people to clap my for errors and double-faults. And they shouldn’t call us names.”

Actually, Stafford didn’t help her own cause with the crowd when she cheered her opponent’s mistakes and double-faults.

UCLA’s Urban wasn’t bothered by Stafford’s fist-clinching and yelling.

“I don’t respect her attitude on the court and I don’t really respect her coach’s attitude,” Urban said. “There’s a fine line between being a good winner and not being one and he crossed it. He was making comments on the court to his team and making comments (about the UCLA players) so we could hear them. He’d say, after we’d miss an overhead, ‘Come on, she’s not Martina (Navratilova) and she doesn’t play like it or look like it.’ ”

Interestingly enough, Brandi, who said he was a bundle of nerves inside, earlier spoke about the virtues of presenting a stoic front.

“I was very fortunate to have a mentor in (the late) Harry Hopman,” he said. “Harry was very stoic and he always said, ‘No matter how bad it is, stay stoic, and never let them see you sweat.’ ”

Well, in this case, at least until today.