NCAA Women’s Tennis Tournament : Stafford Stays Cool to Upset Teammate in Final

The book on winning against Shaun Stafford was to patiently wait for the Florida sophomore to become too emotional.

Who knew it better than Stafford herself? She had compiled many chapters, including a couple in Los Angeles, in her short time with the Gators, blowing leads after blowing up.

“I’m my worst enemy,” she said.

But, Thursday, Stafford tempered her temper just enough to pull off a 7-6, 6-4 victory over her teammate, Halle Cioffi, in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. singles final.

During the match before 500 fans at UCLA’s L.A. Tennis Center, Stafford offered only a couple of clenched fists and shouts of despair over her errors, until Cioffi smacked a forehand wide on match point.

Then, everything came out. She threw her racket high in the air and yelled, no squealed, loudly. After shaking hands with Cioffi, Stafford was crying and in such a state that her coach, Andy Brandi had to calm her for an appearance on ESPN.

“I think I believed in myself more this year,” said Stafford, who lost to Stanford’s Patty Fendick in the 1987 final. “I guess I controlled my emotions better. Today, I kept telling myself, ‘Relax . . . take slow deep breaths.’ ”

Cioffi, who came into the NCAA tournament as the favorite on the basis of her No. 36 ranking on the women’s professional tour, looked more like the flustered player, under the pressure of Stafford’s formidable forehand.

After losing the first-set tiebreaker, 7-3, Cioffi took a 3-0 second-set lead. Stafford, however, stayed calm and won six of the final seven games.

Cioffi, who announced that she will play as a pro in next week’s French Open and will not return to Florida for her sophomore year, went after more of her shots in the second set. “It worked the first three games in the second set,” she said. “But then I just couldn’t make my shots. I didn’t play well here.”

For Brandi, who had envisioned relaxing in the stands, the Cioffi-Stafford match was frustrating.

“It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Brandi said. “When I watch them play in a regular match, I say things all the time and give signals all the time. It was as if someone had handcuffed me and muzzled me in the mouth.”

UCLA’s Stella Sampras and Allyson Cooper defeated Miami’s Ronni Reis and Jami Yonekura, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, for the doubles championship. The Bruins broke Reis’ serve in the 10th game of the third set at love to clinch the match.

“They had a little trouble adjusting to Ronni’s game,” UCLA Coach Bill Zaima said. “But eventually they did an excellent job adjusting to play the best left-hander in the (college) game.”

Said Cooper: “We tried to play it to Jami. When we’d get a sitter, we’d hit it to Ronni. But we hit our volleys and groundstrokes to Jami.”

Cooper is a senior, and Sampras, who reached the round of 16 in singles, is a freshman. The UCLA victory marked the first time the Bruins have won a title in the individual tournament since Lynn Lewis and Heather Ludloff were doubles champions in 1982.