No. 10 Cal Tops Hawaii 6-1

Mao Mushika won in straight sets to secure the win over the Rainbow Wahine.

WTEN3/21/2024 5:53 PM | By: Cal Athletics

BERKELEY – California women’s tennis freshman Mao Mushika clinched for the third time this season in the 10th-ranked Golden Bears’ 6-1 win over Hawaii on Thursday at the Hellman Tennis Complex. The first year Bear defeated Sheena Masuda, 6-0, 6-3, to decide the match.
 
Cal improved to 9-3 after the nonconference result, while Hawaii evened its record at 7-7.
 
The Bears claimed the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead. Cal’s Valentina Ivanov and Jessica Alsola won first on court two over Ana Vilcek and Nikola Homolkova, 6-1, and then Katja Wiersholm and Tiziana-Marie Schomburg topped Anna Kern and Hannah Galindo, 6-4, on court three to clinch the point.
 
In singles, Wiersholm quickly increased Cal’s lead to 2-0, when the 53rd-ranked junior bested Galindo, 6-1, 6-0, on court four. Lan Mi, another Cal junior, followed with a 6-0, 6-3 result over Joëlle Lanz on court six. Mushida, ranked 125th, then defeated Masuda on court five to secure the victory for the Bears.
 
Cal won two of the last three matches to make the final score 6-1.
 
“It was nice to be back out at Hellman after two weekends away,” Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. “It’s an exciting day – we played Hawaii today, and Cal women’s basketball will be playing Hawaii in a little while in the WBIT.
 
“In doubles we did a good job. For the rest of the matches this week, I’d like to see us close out sets a little bit better. But other than that, we did what we needed to do on all the courts. We saw Hawaii in January in their tournament, and no matter what they’re ranked or how they’re doing, they always compete really hard against us and are well coached. I knew we had to be prepared.”
 
With rain in the forecast for Friday afternoon, the match between Cal and Colorado – originally scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow – will instead start at 10 a.m. PT at the Hellman Tennis Complex. The Bears host No. 45 Utah on Saturday at noon PT in their third consecutive match this week.
 
“Hopefully we can keep the rain away the rest of the week and get the other two matches in,” Augustus said. “We’re excited to continue on with conference play.”
 
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