Oregon women’s tennis (7-12, 1-7 Pac-12) lost their fifth straight conference match to No. 6 California 4-0 in its last home game of the season.
The doubles point went to Cal (15-4, 8-0 Pac 12).
No. 2 doubles was the first to complete, with Marlou Kluiving and Lina Åkesson falling 8-1 to Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr. Second to finish was the No. 3 spot between Oregon’s Lana Buttner and Sofia Hager and Cal’s Klara Fabikova and Kelly Chui. Although Fabikova and Chui won the set 8-4, the two Ducks kept the score tight at 4-5 until Cal pulled away with the lead.
Buttner, a senior, said that although it was her last home game, she felt no extra pressure to perform when her doubles match was close.
“(The pressure) is the same as usual,” she said. “(The close score) gives you the extra motivation to do well since it’s senior day. I have been doing well all season with Sofia, so (the score) definitely got us excited to keep doing well.”
In singles, it was the No. 4, 5, and 6 games which determined the game.
Buttner and Fabikova met again in the first match to complete, but this time Fabikova topped Buttner with the score of 6-2, 6-0. The No. 6 match between Cal’s Manasse and Allie Hueffner earned the Bears’ third point of the day when Manasse came away 6-1 in both sets. To clinch the game for Cal, Lynn Chi downed Kluiving 6-2, 6-0.
Despite the numbers being in favor of the Bears, assistant coach Maja Kovacek believes the girls performed well against the six-ranked team, an example being the No. 2 singles match between Jasmine Minor and Zsofi Susanyi that was suspended at 6-3, 0-1 in favor of Cal.
“I was happy how Jasmine competed (in singles),” Kovacek said. “She fought hard. There were a lot of good rallies, a lot of good points. The first match just got away from her. She had to come back 0-3 down.”
The loss might even bring some positives to the team.
“We know we can compete hard with a top-10 team,” Kovacek said. “We can take some confidence from that for sure. The scores may not show it in every spot, but we had some good points and close games. I think we’re encouraged by that.”
The final two games for Oregon are on the road against Idaho and Washington State.
Follow Anne Yilmaz on Twitter @anneyilmaz
[Originally published here by the Daily Emerald on April 14, 2014]