No. 9 Cal Falls To No. 3 Stanford 5-2

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 matches to take the Big Slam, and the resurgent Bears pushed both matches to three sets. But the 45th-ranked Wiersholm lost to the 32nd-ranked Yepifanova, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, on court three to clinch the Cardinal's win, and then the 81st-ranked Alsola fell to Blokhina, 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-2, to wrap up the match at 5-2.
 
"We had some opportunities in the doubles, but we didn't close them out," Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. "It's always tough to win four (singles matches) when you're playing them no matter who's out there. Credit to them. They fought hard; so did we. We tried to make a final push there at the end. I'm proud of how we fought. I'm just looking forward to Ojai next week, where we might see them again."
 
Next up is the Pac-12 Championship in Ojai, where the conference tournament starts Wednesday.
 
Stay Posted
For further coverage of the Bears, follow them on Twitter (@CalWomensTennis), Instagram (@CalWomensTennis) and Facebook (/CalWomensTennis/).