BERKELEY – A good crowd and warm, sunny weather greeted the ninth-ranked California women’s tennis team for Friday’s Big Slam at the Hellman Tennis Complex. But the otherwise pleasant day ended in defeat, as third-ranked Stanford walked away with a 5-2 result in the regular-season finale.
With a win, Cal (16-5, 8-2 Pac-12) would have earned a share of the Pac-12 Conference regular-season title, but the Cardinal (19-2, 8-1) dashed that hope.
Before the match, Cal honored Valentina Ivanov and Hannah Viller Moeller on Senior Day, with the veteran Bears set to play in the last regular-season match of their careers.
In doubles, court one saw a clash between Cal’s 26th-ranked pair of Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika and Stanford’s 24th-ranked duo of Connie Ma and Alexandra Yepifanova, with the latter prevailing, 6-2. Cal rebounded when Ivanov and Jessica Alsola won 6-3 on court two over Angelica Blake and Alexis Blokhina to leave court three to decide the doubles point. After a close battle that ended in a tiebreaker, Cal’s Katja Wiersholm and Berta Passola Folch fell to Katherine Hui and Valencia Xu, 7-6(4), and the Bears trailed, 1-0.
Cal fell behind 2-0 early in singles when the 38th-ranked Viller Moeller lost to the 10th-ranked Ma, 6-1, 6-0, on court two.
The Bears rallied, as junior Lan Mi beat Valencia Xu, 6-3, 6-0, on court six, and Mushika topped Katherine Hui, 6-3, 6-4, on court five to tie the overall match 2-2.
The 49th-ranked Ivanov then fell 6-3, 7-5 to the 35th-ranked Blake on court one, and Stanford led 3-2.
Cal needed to win the last two singles…
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