BERKELEY – Valentina Ivanov, Mao Mushika and Lan Mi recorded singles wins Sunday at the Hellman Tennis Complex, but they weren't enough as the 11th-ranked California women's tennis team fell in a nail-biter to ninth-ranked USC, 4-3, in a match postponed from Friday due to rain. The setback was the Golden Bears' first Pac-12 Conference loss and their first home loss this season.
 
The Trojans clinched their victory when Emma Charney defeated Cal senior Hannah Viller Moeller in singles.
 
The Bears now have a 12-4 record and are 5-1 in the Pac-12. USC improved to 14-6 (5-1).
 
The teams split the first two doubles matches. First, Cal's Katja Wiersholm and Berta Passola Folch fell to the Trojans' 42nd-ranked Parker Fry and Grace Piper, 6-2, on court three, and then the Bears' Jessica Alsola and Valentina Ivanov edged Lily Fairclough and McKenna Koenig, 7-6(7), on court two. In a hard-fought battle on court one, Cal's 23rd-ranked duo of Mao Mushika and Hannah Viller Moeller lost to USC's 15th-ranked pair of Charney and Eryn Cayetano, 7-5, to hand the Trojans the 1-0 lead.
 
The Bears soon rebounded in singles, as the 57th-ranked Ivanov – last week's Pac-12 Player of the Week – beat the 93rd-ranked Snow Han, 6-4, 6-1, on court one to make the score 1-1. Cal took a 2-1 lead when, with Mi leading Naomi Cheong, 6-4, 4-3, on court six, the Trojan retired with an injury, and Mi claimed the win. Mushika followed with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 victory over McKenna Koenig on court five, and Cal's lead swelled to 3-1.
 
But the Bears suffered two close losses – the 53rd-ranked Wiersholm fell to the 61st-ranked Piper, 6-3, 7-6(7), and the 54th-ranked Jessica Alsola dropped a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 result to the 108th-ranked Cayetano – to level the match at 3-3.
 
The fans and both teams converged on court two, where a three-setter was looming between the 38th-ranked Viller Moeller and the 28th-ranked Charney, who won the first set, 6-2. The veteran Bear built leads of 5-4 and 6-5 in the second set before the Trojan forced a tiebreaker, which she captured 7-5 to win the match, 6-2, 7-6(5), and end the overall contest.
 
"I choose to look at it like two top-10 teams competed against each other," said Cal head coach Amanda Augustus, whose Bears fell from the No. 10 spot in the ITA rankings to No. 11 in last Tuesday's poll despite winning three of three matches. "This was a high-quality match between two top-10-caliber teams, and these matches make us better.
 
"I would've liked to have seen us close out that doubles point on court one. But I'm proud of our team, and our team competed hard. Could we have done a couple of things better? Sure. But we have plenty of tennis ahead of us, and we're having an outstanding season. For people who haven't come out to watch us play at Hellman, come out next weekend. Our goal is to win a national championship, and we're trying to take one step forward every single day."
 
Cal closes out a long homestand against No. 66 Oregon on Friday and No. 3 Pepperdine on Saturday. The match against the Waves – slated to start at noon PT – is part of a doubleheader with the Cal men's tennis team, which hosts Utah at 3:30 p.m. at Hellman.

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