Women's Tennis Falls to No. 8 Cal

OJAI, Calif. – The Utah Women's Tennis team was knocked out of the Pac-12 Championship in the Quarterfinals after falling to the top seed, Cal, 4-0 on Thursday afternoon.

"Tough match today, and we had a really great look at closing the doubles point and couldn't quite finish it," remarked head coach Ric Mortera. "The team responded well and had some early opportunities that we needed to capitalize on in order to put pressure on them. Credit to Cal for their play in key moments that ultimately swung the match in their favor."

With the match moving to singles, the Utes and Golden Bears were locked in tight doubles matches. Cal picked up the first doubles win, winning in No. 3 doubles, 6-3. The Utes responded, and the duo of Linda Huang and Madison Tattini defeated #39 Haley Giavara and Valentina Ivanov, 6-4. The win was Utah's 19th in program history over a top 40 team.
 
The doubles point would come to a tight No. 2 doubles match. Utah's team of Emily Dush and Anastasia Goncharova battled with the 52nd ranked team of Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm. With the match tied at 6-6, it went to a tiebreaker, where the Utes came up just short as the Bears won 7-5, and Cal took the doubles point.
 
Heading to singles, the Utes continued to battle, but the Bears slowly started to pull away. Cal took a 2-0 advantage after winning in No. 1 singles. Linda Huang battled the 62nd ranked Haley Giavara but fell short as she was defeated 6-3, 6-3.
 
The lead went to 3-0 after Valentina Ivanov defeated Lindsay Hung, 6-4, 6-2. Cal clinched the win in No. 2 singles, where 64th ranked Jessica Alsola beat Emily Dush, 6-4, 6-2.
 
All other matches were left unfinished, but Utah had a second set lead in No. 3 and No. 6 Singles. Goncharova and Anya Lamoreaux were battling and held 2-1 and 6-5 leads in their second sets.
 
#8 Cal 4, #52 Utah 0 
DOUBLES
Linda Huang/Madison Tattini, UTAH def. #39 Haley Giavara/Valentina Ivanov, CAL - 6-4
 #68 Jessica Alsola/Katja Wiersholm, CAL def. Anastasia Goncharova/Emily Dush, 7-6 (5)
 Erin Richardson/Julia Rosenqvist CAL def. Madeline Lamoreaux/Lindsay Hung - 6-3
 Order of finish: 3, 1, 2 
 
SINGLES
#62 Haley Giavara, CAL def. Linda Huang, UTAH - 6-3, 6-3
 #64 Jessica Alsola, CAL def. Emily Dush, UTAH - 6-4, 6-2
 Katja Wiersholm, CAL v. Anastasia Goncharova, UTAH - 7-5, 1-2 unf.
 Valentina Ivanov, CAL def. Lindsay Hung, UTAH - 6-4, 6-2
 Hannah Viller Moeller, CAL v. Madison Tattini, UTAH - 7-5, 1-2 unf.
 Erin Richardson, CAL v. Anya Lamoreaux, UTAH - 6-4, 5-6 unf.
Order of Finish: 1,4,2
 
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