Cal Falls To USC 4-3

Jessica Alsola collected her 11th consecutive singles win in Cal’s setback in Los Angeles.

WTEN3/26/2023 5:52 PM | By: Cal Athletics

LOS ANGELES – The No. 61 California women’s tennis team suffered a 4-3 defeat against No. 38 USC on Sunday afternoon at Marks Stadium and wound up with a split of Pac-12 Conference matches on its road trip.
 
Including a 5-2 win at No. 30 UCLA on Saturday, Cal’s record stands at 5-6 (2-2 Pac-12). USC improved to 10-6 (2-2).
 
The Golden Bears took a 1-0 lead after doubles. After a loss on court one, Cal got a win on court three, with Berta Passola Folch and Hannah Viller Moeller beating Nathalie Rodilosso and Naomi Cheong, 6-2. The veteran pair of Valentina Ivanov and Haley Giavara clinched the point when they defeated the Trojans’ Snow Han and Emma Charney, 6-2, on court two.
 
Cal built a 3-0 lead after some early success in singles. Passola Folch beat Rodilosso again, 6-1, 6-3, on court six, and then the 40th-ranked Jessica Alsola picked up a 6-4, 6-1 victory over the 83rd-ranked Han on court two. Alsola’s win marked the 11th straight for the Cal sophomore, who hasn’t lost since Jan. 6, when she fell to USC’s McKenna Koenig (who didn’t play on Sunday) in the Weinman Foundation Invitational in Hawaii.
 
“Jessica has been picking up tons of ranked wins,” Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. “I think she should be selected in singles and doubles in the NCAA tournaments coming up. She’s had a great season, and she’s very open to coaching and playing tactically smarter. She is a great competitor and has a lot of weapons, and she knows how to use them.”
 
But USC strung together four consecutive wins – capped off by Cheong’s 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 result over Viller Moeller on court five – to overcome the Bears.
 
“We’re happy to come away with one win on the road here, and we were very close to having two,” Augustus said. “We’ve been working on doubles quite a lot, and we were pleased to see us win the doubles point today. That was a big positive.
 
“It was a really close match, and everyone competed hard. We’re proud of that, and we’re looking forward to continuing to get better each match we play. With the one road win, we should move up in the rankings.”
 
Cal returns to the friendly confines of the Hellman Tennis Complex to host…