ITA
Lan Mi won in singles in Cal’s setback against the Waves.
SEATTLE – The 15th-ranked California women’s tennis team faced a top-10 opponent for the second straight day at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, with the Golden Bears falling to sixth-ranked Pepperdine, 4-2, on Saturday in the consolation bracket at the Nordstrom Tennis Center.
The record for the Bears – who lost to fifth-ranked Michigan, 4-2, on Friday – is now 2-2. Pepperdine improved to 3-2.
The Bears will play one more consolation match at national indoors Sunday, taking on the losing team from the Saturday night contest between host and 21st-ranked Washington and 16th-ranked USC at a time and site to be announced.
On Saturday in doubles, the Bears got a win from Valentina Ivanov and Jessica Alsola, who defeated the Waves’ Anna Campana and Nikki Redelijk, 6-2, on court two. Pepperdine took the court-one match, leaving court three to settle the point. After a tight battle, Cal’s Katja Wiersholm and Berta Passola Folch fell to Jasmine Conway and Lisa Zaar, 6-4, and the Waves took a 1-0 lead.
The teams traded wins through the first four singles matches – with Cal’s Lan Mi besting Conway, 6-2, 6-4, on court six and the 19th-ranked Wiersholm topping 89th-ranked Campana, 6-4, 6-3, on court four – to leave the Bears trailing, 3-2.
Freshman Bear Mao Mushika looked to be on her way towards a victory – leading the 106th-ranked Redelijk 7-6(3), 4-2 – when the 15th-ranked Zaar completed a 6-2, 7-5 win over Cal’s 21st-ranked Hannah Viller Moeller on court one to end the match.
“Mao was leading and about to win on court five, Hannah was a couple points away from getting to a third set, and we know how many third sets Hannah was won for this team,” Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. “Lan and Katja had good wins, and this was a very close match that came down to a couple of points here and there. We’re playing against the top teams in the country – we’re also one of the top teams in the country – and we have one more opportunity tomorrow.”
Cal lost the doubles point Saturday for the first time this year.
“It was a very competitive doubles point, and we had a very solid win on court two,” Augustus said. “It didn’t quite go our way, but we…
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