BERKELEY – The third time was the charm for the 10th-ranked California women's tennis team, with freshman Mao Mushika clinching a 4-3 victory over No. 3 Pepperdine in the third meeting between the teams this season.
 
Cal dropped the two previous matches against the Waves, but Saturday's contest was the first of the three played at the Hellman Tennis Complex, where the Golden Bears are 7-1 this year. With the nonconference win, Cal improved its overall record to 14-4.
 
Pepperdine's record is 11-5.
 
"It was just a high-level match," Cal head coach Amanda Augustus. "We've been getting better, and we had a fantastic crowd today. We had a couple of opportunities in the doubles and we didn't quite win it. Still, both sides played great tennis. I'm proud of how we responded in the singles. The last time we played them, we barely lost the doubles point and then we didn't come out quick enough in the singles. This time we did. But there's a reason why Pepperdine is a top-five team. Even though we won four first sets in singles, they battled hard, are well-coached and are very experienced."
 
In the first completed doubles match Saturday, Cal's Lan Mi and Berta Passola Folch fell to Lisa Zaar and Jasmine Conway, 6-2, on court three. The other two courts were both close late, as Cal's Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm were knotted at 5-5 with Nikki Redelijk and Vivian Yang on court two, and the court-one clash between the 22nd-ranked Cal duo of Mushika and Hannah Viller Moeller went to a tiebreaker with Pepperdine's second-ranked Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen. The Waves prevailed on court one, 7-6(2), to win the doubles point.
 
The Bears indeed rebounded in singles. First, the 44th-ranked Viller Moeller collected an impressive 6-0, 6-1 win over the 10th-ranked Lisa Zaar on court one and then Cal junior Lan Mi bested Yang, 6-3, 6-3, to give Cal a 2-1 lead.
 
The Waves struck back to take a 3-2 lead, as the 95th-ranked Redelijk beat Cal sophomore Berta Passola Folch, 6-3, 6-1, and the 52nd-ranked Tjen topped the 74th-ranked Alsola, 6-1, 7-5.
 
The final two matches of the day featured intense three-setters. Wiersholm posted another impressive Cal win, as the 65th-ranked junior beat the eighth-ranked Broadus, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, to tie the match 3-3. On court four, Mushika finally secured the Bears' 4-3 win when she defeated the 90th-ranked Anna Campana, 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-4, for the first-year Bear's fourth clinching win of the season.
 
Added Augustus, "To get top-10 wins for Katja and Hannah and for a freshman to close it out, I'm really pleased with this group."
 
The Bears return to Pac-12 Conference action when they play at Washington on Friday and at Washington State next Saturday.
 
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