No. 10 Cal Tops Tigers, Advances To Super Regionals

BERKELEY – Valentina Ivanov clinched a second straight win in the NCAA Championship for the California women’s tennis team, as the 10th-seeded and 10th-ranked Golden Bears blanked 17th-ranked Auburn 4-0 on a cold Saturday night at the Hellman Tennis Complex. The senior – playing in her last home match – defeated Carolyn Ansari at court-one singles to send Cal to next week’s NCAA Super Regional round at No. 7 Georgia.
 
The Sydney, Australia, product also clinched Cal’s 4-0 first-round win over Sacramento State on Friday at Hellman.
 
Cal improved its record to 20-6 while Auburn ended its run in the NCAA team tournament with a 17-11 record.
 
The match originally had a noon PT start, but rain delayed the match until 5 p.m. A few minutes into doubles, rain hit Hellman again to force another delay.
 
But once play resumed, the Bears and Tigers were able to complete the match.
 
In doubles, Auburn’s top duo got the better of the Bears’ top tandem, as Cal’s Hannah Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika – ranked 18th – lost to the 15th-ranked DJ Bennett and Ariana Arseneault 6-0 on court one. Each of the other two Cal pairs trailed 5-4 on their respective courts but managed to battle back. On court three, Ivanov and Berta Passola Folch won the next three games to claim a 7-5 win over Carolyn Ansari and Ava Esposito Cogan. The Bears clinched the doubles point on court two, where the 81st-ranked Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm edged the 74th-ranked Adeline Flach and Angella Okutoyi 7-6(2).
 
Cal junior Lan Mi posted her 40th win of the season at court-six singles – beating Cogan 6-4, 6-1 – to give the Bears a 2-0 lead, and Passola Folch made the lead 3-0 when she bested Flach 6-3, 6-0 on court five.
 
Ivanov notched a big win in clinching, with the 43rd-ranked Bear upsetting the ninth-ranked Ansari 6-4, 6-1 to end the night.
 
“We’re excited to be advancing to the next round,” Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. “It was a little chilly, but we were glad to be able to get the match in today. It didn’t look so promising this morning, but our grounds crew and our staff did such a good job of getting our courts ready to play, and we even had a tiny rain delay in the middle. Our team did a really good job of being resilient, of being ready to play.”
 
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