California Golden Bears Athletics
Cal Survives Thriller to Reach NCAA Semis
5/22/2016 12:45 AM | Women's Tennis
TULSA, Okla. - With the end of her college career suddenly appearing imminent, Lynn Chi pulled out a three-set victory to lift top-seeded Cal past Pepperdine in the NCAA quarterfinals on Saturday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center and send the Golden Bears (23-1) to their first semifinal appearance since 2009.
Cal will face 12th-seeded Oklahoma State in the semifinal set for Monday at 12 p.m. CT. The Cowgirls upset fourth-seeded Ohio State in their Saturday quarterfinal, 4-2.
The Bears' quarterfinal with Pepperdine was a stark contrast to the regular-season meeting between the teams, with Cal routing the Waves, 7-0, during the regular season. This time, Pepperdine won the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead and later tied the match at 2-2 in singles.
A clutch victory by freshman and Tulsa native Olivia Hauger – who beat Matea Cutura, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, on court five – set up her senior teammate for the clincher. And when Chi defeated Dzina Milovanovic, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, at court-three singles, the rest of the Bears rushed the court to celebrate with her.
"It's an amazing feeling," Chi said. "We hadn't reached the semis since I've been here. It's amazing just to win that match. Credit to everyone on the team for working so hard and putting everything on the court. I'm just so proud of everybody."
Cal also reached the NCAA semifinals in 2008 - Amanda Augustus' first year as head coach – as well as in 2007. The Bears finished as the national runners-up in 2008 and 2009.
The result ended the season for the eighth-seeded/ranked Waves (24-3).
"There were a couple of lineup changes" since Cal's earlier match with the Waves, Chi said. "But when they came out you could tell they wanted it just as badly as we did. Credit to Pepperdine. They really played well today. It took everything that we had to pull out that win."
When the match was in question, Chi admitted to thinking about the impending end of her college career.
"The thought had crossed my mind, but I did a really job of focusing on my match," she said. "And I knew that my teammates were just going to leave it all out there, and they did. Olivia came back from her first-set loss; Klara came back from her first set. Yeah, the thought crossed my mind, but I just had to focus on my match. And I knew that if I took care of my court, I could count on my teammates to take care of theirs."
[1] No. 2 California (23-1) def. [8] No. 8 Pepperdine (24-3), 4-2
