2008 NCAA Women's Doubles Championship Bracket
TULSA ? Fresno State's No. 2-ranked pair of Melanie Gloria and Tinesta Rowe battled three sets in the 2008 NCAA Tennis Doubles Championship title match, falling just short of the championship to UCLA's No. 1-ranked duo of Tracey Lin and Riza Zalameda (2-6, 6-4, 3-6).
Gloria and Rowe ended their championship run with a dominating 36-9 record that saw the Bulldogs ranked in the top of nation all season long. This is the second appearance in the final match for a Fresno State doubles tandem, as Lucia Sainz and Katharina Winterhalter came up just shy of the NCAA Doubles title in 2006.
A slow start and a few jitters gave UCLA the upper-hand in the first set, with the Bulldogs falling to the No. 1 team, 6-2. In the second set, Fresno State won the first three games, breaking two of UCLA's serves in nearly uncontested succession, going up 3-0 early in the set. The Bulldogs and the Bruins held serve for the next five points, giving Fresno State a 5-3 lead. With the momentum slowly shifting in UCLA's favor, Lin and Zalameda broke Fresno State's serve to close the gap to 5-4, but the Bulldogs refused to roll over and broke the Bruins' final serve to win the second set, forcing a third and decisive set.
UCLA came out strong in the third set, taking a 3-0 lead early on. The Bulldogs rallied to bring the set to 4-3, but the momentum quickly shifted back to UCLA as Lin and Zalameda took the final two games to win the match and the national title.
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