NCAA Women's Tennis Championships: California, Stanford punch tickets to Athens
Two Pac-12 teams, both from the Bay Area, took the court Sunday in the second round of the 2017 NCAA Women's Tennis Championships and both will be representing the Conference of Champions Friday in Athens, Georgia.
Second round: California 4, LSU 0
The Golden Bears advanced to Athens in impressive fashion, sweeping LSU 4-0 Sunday afternoon in Berkeley. Cal kept it tidy, winning the doubles point in consecutive matches with Maegan Manasee/Maya Jansen defeating the Tigers' Joana Valle Costa/Ryann Foster, 6-2, and Olivia Hauger/Karla Popovic besting Jade Lewis/Rebecca Weissmann, 6-3.
Moving into singles play, the Golden Bears still kept the momentum rolling and failed to drop a single set, picking up three straight-set victories to clinch the match. Senior Denise Starr, in her final match at the Hellman Tennis Complex, downed LSU's Foster 6-3, 6-2. Next up was Jansen who defeated Weissmann 6-1, 6-4. The clinching point came down to Hauger, who defeated LSU's Jessica Golovin 6-3, 6-1.
Olivia beats Golovin @LSUwten 6-3, 6-1 on court 4 to clinch Cal's 4-0 victory & trip to Athens! #GoBears @NCAATennis pic.twitter.com/pQfW8qVKQG
— Cal Women's Tennis (@CalWomensTennis) May 14, 2017
Cal now draws SEC Champion Vanderbilt on Friday, May 19 at 1 p.m. PT in Athens.
Second round: Stanford 4, TCU 2
Just across the bay at Stanford, the Cardinal faced more of a battle against TCU, but prevailed after 4-2. The doubles point was hotly contested as Caroline Doyle/Melissa Lord defeated the Horned Frogs' Alexis Pereira/Sofiko Kadzhaya 6-3. TUC pulled it even with a win on court three as Seda Arantekin/Caroline Wegner took down the Card's Emma Higuchi/Caroline Lampl 6-2. It came down to No. 1 where Emily Arbuthnott/Taylor Davidson clinched the point for Stanford with a 6-3 victory over Donika Bashota/Olaya Garrido-Rivas 6-3.
Onto singles play, TCU's Garrido-Rivas quickly avenged her doubles defeat by topping Arbuthnott in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2. The Cardinal counter with a win on court six as Higuchi defeated Wegner 6-3, 6-2. The Horned Frogs squared things at 2-2 with Arantekin's nailbiting 7-5, 7-6 (4) victory over Doyle.
Following the script for the match, Stanford's Melissa Lord tilted things back in the host school's favor with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Kadzhaya. Then it was Lampl who secured things for the Cardinal. After dropping the first set in a tense tiebreak, she rallied to take down Bashota 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2.
How this one was won. pic.twitter.com/D57bq7K43H
— StanfordWTennis (@StanfordWTennis) May 14, 2017
The Cardinal advances to take on Michigan on May 19 at 6 a.m. PT.