UCLA Blanks Cal, Sends Bears Home Sans Title

The moment 27 years in the making was finally upon the Cal women's tennis team last Tuesday-for the first time in program history, the Bears had made it to the NCAA Championship finals.

A familiar foe stood in their way in UCLA, and after splitting their regular season matches, it was fitting that it would come down to this one match to settle which team was the superior.

A grueling four hours later, UCLA was the team that captured its first ever title with a 4-0 win, and Cal would have to wait another year to get a shot at its first-ever championship.

"Everyone was crying," senior Susie Babos said. "Whoever was there was crying because getting that far was disappointing. The doubles was really close and could have gone either way, and we were up in some singles matches."

The Bears lost the doubles point 2-1 and did not get its usual contribution from juniors Bojana Bobusic and Claire Ilcinkas in singles. With the team down 3-0, it was up to Babos to keep the team's hopes alive, but the Bruins' Riza Zalameda proved too tough and gave UCLA the title with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win.

Still, despite the heartbreaking loss, Cal realizes that it was a part of history.

"As each day goes by, it gets a little better, and Amanda told us we have to be proud though of what we did," senior Cristina Visico said Sunday. "It's hard to hold your head up high during that moment, but it didn't even seem real when we made it to the finals. Now it's sinking in what we really did."

Perhaps it was the fact that the Bears have never made a run that deep in the postseason, but the singles and doubles tournaments proved even less successful for Cal.

Three of its four players were eliminated in the first round of the draw. Ilcinkas was the last Bears player left standing and advanced to the round of 16 before being eliminated by who else but Zalameda in a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 loss.

Over in doubles, Cal's lone team of Susie Babos and Stephanie Kusano was also eliminated in the round of 16.

"Some of the girls they matched up with had a couple days off to recover, so I'll make some adjustments in training (in the following years) to extend the length of time to peak physically and mentally for singles and doubles," Bears coach Amanda Augustus said.

Still, Ilcinkas' round of 16 finish was a fitting end to her breakout season.

"I'm really excited for Claire," Augustus said. "She'll be an All-American. I think she had an amazing year, and things are looking up for her from here for sure."

With four seniors departing, it could be up to players like Ilcinkas to fill their shoes. Augustus appeared confident that next year's team will be able to make a run at the title again.

"I think they knew what that was at the start, but they became better at it as the year went along," Augustus said. "By the time we reached NCAAs, there was no doubt that everybody on the court was giving 100 percent of their heart to fight for everyone else on the team."

Tags: NCAA TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS