In a sport with as much variability as tennis, one really cannot win them all. Even the best players in the world regularly face setbacks when their game is off, or if their opponent was having an exceptionally good day.
And so, last weekend No. 7 Cal women’s tennis faced a setback from UCLA after defeating SDSU just a day earlier.
Coming out of a quarterfinal loss at indoor nationals, the Bears were looking to regain their winning streak and to climb back up the rankings after dropping from No. 4.
The team started off strong on both days, with two doubles wins –– and, consequently, the doubles point –– to start them off in each of the duals.
“We don’t tend to start quick enough, and UCLA always starts really quick in doubles, so we did a good job in the doubles point today,” said head coach Amanda Augustus after the UCLA match. “The doubles were really high quality, and we came away with two good wins to get the doubles point today.”
Erin Richardson and Julia Rosenqvist clinched the match against SDSU after a tiebreak, but were unable to bring Cal the win against UCLA and fell 6-3. Experienced pair of juniors Haley Giavara and Valentina Ivanov brought Cal a 6-4 win against UCLA, but fell with the same score against SDSU.
Augustus said she was happy with the teams’ doubles progress after the Bears had trouble earlier in the season. The coaching team broke up the team of Richardson and Jessica Alsola, teaming up Rosenqvist with the former and newest Bear Katja Wiersholm with the latter, giving Cal a much more solid doubles base in the consequent matches.
After the strong start in doubles, Cal continued on the winning streak against SDSU: The team won all but one of their singles matches. Only Giavara lost out to San Diego’s No. 80 Nunyawi Thamchaiwat on court one after battling out –– but failing to capitalize on –– an 11-9 tiebreaker.
Against UCLA, however, the matches took a turn after the doubles.
No Bear was able to mark their territory, with losses on every court. Giavara quickly fell against No. 76 Abbey Forbes 6-1, 6-1, and other players soon followed suit. Despite some great shots and a notoriously great forehand, the junior was unable to match the strength of her opponent, the 2019 junior Wimbledon doubles champion.
Freshman Alsola on court two, who has climbed to a No. 51 rating, also lost out to her UCLA opponent 6-3, 6-2. Only one match went to a third-set tiebreaker, with freshman Makenna Thiel, who has been playing fewer matches than her teammates so far this season, losing the first set tiebreak, winning the second, but losing overall.
“Unfortunately we didn’t capitalize on opportunities,” Augustus said. “We need to convert our opportunities when we have them, so we need to be a little more comfortable playing aggressive and playing longer points.”
Now, all of Cal’s efforts are going to be set on its next few matches. The Bears will be defending their home territory, not playing away again until the very beginning of April. This weekend, their first test will be Texas, the No. 3 team the Bears lost against at nationals run earlier this month.
The Bears will also get a chance for a rematch against UCLA, playing them on the blue and gold’s home turf at the end of March.
Despite the losses, Augustus says team morale is high.
“One match at a time, but we want to play all the best teams,” she said. “It’s all about who is the best team at the end of the season, so you’re going to have some good matches and some not-so-good matches.”
