May 1- The ninth-seeded UCLA women's tennis team earned a spot in next week's 16-team NCAA Championships, defeating Pepperdine, 4- Saturday in an NCAA Regional Final at the Los Angeles Tennis Center       Printer-Friendly Format   E-mail this article         lt;bgt;Pictured:lt;/bgt;lt;igt; Merve Asimgil and the Waves were eliminated by the Bruins for the second straight season.lt;/igt; lt;pgt; May 1- The ninth-seeded UCLA women's tennis team earned a spot in next week's 16-team NCAA Championships, defeating Pepperdine, 4- Saturday in an NCAA Regional Final at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. The Bruins (18-7) will face eighth-seeded USC (18-6) next Thursday in Athens, Ga. lt;pgt; Unlike its 4-0 decision over Long Beach State a day earlier, UCLA was tested on Saturday and was forced to come from behind to pull out the win. The Waves came out strong, registering a pair of doubles victories to earn the one point awarded for doubles play. lt;pgt; The Bruins were able to answer back quickly in singles play however, as sophomore Laura Gordon got UCLA on the board with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Eva Dickes at court No. 6. Junior Sarah Gregg then put the Bruins up -1 when she knocked off Karin Schlapbach, 6-1, 6- at court No. 4. lt;pgt; UCLA and Pepperdine then traded a pair of straight-set victories on court Nos. and 3, making it 3- in favor of UCLA. At that point, both remaining matches were in a third set. Bruin junior Lauren Fisher was able to clinch the match for UCLA at the No. position, as she came back from a set down to defeat Merve Asimgil, 3-6, 6-3, 6-. When play was suspended, UCLA?s Daniela Bercek was up 4-3 in the third set of her match with Natalie Braverman. lt;pgt; Saturday marked the second year in a row that UCLA has defeated Pepperdine in the NCAA Tournament, as the Bruins posted a 4-1 victory over the Waves in last year's regional final. UCLA reached the quarterfinals at last year's NCAA Championships, falling to third-seeded Duke, 4-0 at Stanford, Calif. lt;Pgt;