NORMAN, Okla. – Lan Mi pulled out a clutch three-set victory to clinch the No. 19 California women's tennis team's 4-3 win over No. 16 Oklahoma in the ITA Kickoff Weekend final Sunday and qualify the Golden Bears for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Seattle. Mi, a junior in her first year with Cal, defeated the Sooners' Emma Staker, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, at court-six singles to punch Cal's ticket to Washington.

"This is a goal of ours, and we've been working hard towards it," Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. "We competed very hard in doubles and singles, which was fantastic. The team is really excited to go to national indoors, and we will also get to go to Katja Wiersholm's hometown of Seattle, which is an added bonus."
 
The Bears will compete in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship from Feb. 9-12 at the Nordstrom Tennis Center in Seattle. They captured the 2016 national indoor title to mark the program's first national team championship.
 
With Sunday's win, Cal improved its record to 2-0, with both victories coming in Norman. OU is 3-3.
 
Sunday's final was a battle from the start, with the teams splitting the first two doubles matches. Cal's 14th-ranked Hannah Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika ran into OU's second-ranked Dana Guzman and Alina Shcherbinina on court one and lost to the Sooners, 6-1. The Bears rebounded when the new pairing of Wiersholm and Berta Passola Folch beat Romana Cisovska and Roisin Gilheany, 6-2, on court three. Jessica Alsola and Valentina Ivanov – another relatively new Cal duo – clinched the doubles point on court two, with the Bears topping Julia Garcia Ruiz and Chloe Noel, 6-2.
 
Augustus was happy with how her doubles teams fared overall in the ITA Kickoff Weekend
 
"In the individual tournaments we played in earlier this month, we had a chance to look at some different options, and the good thing for us is we have a lot of really good options in doubles. I'm pleased we won the two doubles points in both of these matches – our first dual matches of the season – in Norman."
 
In singles, over the next four completed matches, the teams alternated wins, with Mushika beating Chloe Noel, 6-2, 6-0, on court five and the 36th-ranked Wiersholm getting past the 16th-ranked Florencia Urrutia on court four. Wiersholm won the first set, 6-4, and Urrutia led the second set, 3-1, when the Sooner had to retire with an injury.
 
Cal led 3-2.
 
The last two matches of the day went to three sets apiece, with the 17th-ranked Alsola facing the 72nd-ranked Shcherbinina on court one and Mi facing Staker. Cal needed to win one to advance, while the Sooners needed to win both. Alsola fell, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, to tie the match, briefly, at 3-3 – before Mi completed Cal's victory. A transfer from Cornell, Mi – who hails from Berkeley Heights, New Jersey – has won 16 consecutive singles matches and has a 22-2 record.
 
"The win really started with the doubles point – we knew it would be important today," Augustus said. "It was crucial to give us momentum going into singles. Credit to OU. The Sooners competed hard on every court in singles, and we're strong in every position. In the end, Lan did a fantastic job in clinching. She did an awesome job of closing out that match."
 
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