BERKELEY – Katja Wiersholm clinched a California women's tennis victory for the second straight match, as the 11th-ranked Golden Bears defeated No. 17 UCLA, 4-3, on Saturday at the Hellman Tennis Complex. The 53rd-ranked Cal junior bested 72nd-ranked Bianca Fernandez, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, to end the match and keep the Bears unbeaten in the Pac-12 Conference at 5-0 (12-3 overall).
 
UCLA now has a 10-4 record (4-1 Pac-12).
 
Wiersholm clinched Cal's 6-1 win over No. 45 Utah last Saturday in Berkeley, and she also clinched the season-opening, 4-0 win over Illinois.
 
"It's important in these moments to convince yourself that you want it to come down to you, that you want to be the one to put that number four up on the board," Wiersholm said Saturday. "I kept reminding myself of that today, and it really helped push me through."
 
The Bears took a 1-0 lead when the 23rd-ranked pair of Mao Mushika and Hannah Viller Moeller beat Elise Wagle and Tian Fangran, 6-4, on court one to clinch the doubles point. Earlier, Cal's Jessica Alsola and Valentina Ivanov won 6-4 over the Bruins' 80th-ranked Kimmi Hance and Anne Christine Lutkemeyer on court two.
 
"We did a really good job in doubles, and we didn't even get to hit a ball yesterday because it was wet," Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. "I wanted to see us come out aggressive and quick, and I really thought we did. That was important. UCLA is a very good team. We know if we can get that doubles point, it helps a lot, because it's hard to win four singles matches against a good team like that. They always battle hard."
 
In singles, Alsola, ranked 54th, gave Cal a 2-0 lead when she topped Lutkemeyer, 6-4, 6-4, on court four.
 
But losses on court two and court one left the match tied, 2-2.
 
Mushika, a freshman, beat Wagle on court five, 6-4, 7-6(7), to momentarily give the Bears a 3-2 lead.
 
But UCLA knotted the match at 3-3 when Ahmani Guichard defeated Cal's Lan Mi in three sets, 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-1, on court six, in what was just Mi's third singles loss of 2024. The junior leads the Bears with a 32-5 record.
 
That left court three to decide the match. Wiersholm had the chance to end it when leading 5-4 in the second set, though Fernandez rallied to take the set. Given another chance in the third, Wiersholm slammed the door shut on the Bruins.
 
Like Mi, Wiersholm has lost just three times in singles in 2024, after losing just once in the fall. The junior has compiled a 21-4 record through Saturday.
 
"At the end of the day it is about the results, it is about the winning," Wiersholm said, "and every day I just keep telling myself to try and get better each day so that when it comes down to it, I can be that one percent better than the girl on the other side of the net. That's what I've been working towards, and I feel like it's been getting better and better each match and each month. The season's going by quick, though, and that's what makes it challenging sometimes."
 
Added Augustus, "I'm just proud of us finishing that match out, and I'm looking forward to another tough battle tomorrow."
 
Cal hosts ninth-ranked USC on Sunday at noon at the Hellman Tennis Complex in a Pac-12 contest that was rescheduled from Friday.
 
Stay Posted
For further coverage of the Bears, follow them on Twitter (@CalWomensTennis), Instagram (@CalWomensTennis) and Facebook (/CalWomensTennis/).