MALIBU – Despite singles wins from Jessica Alsola and Greta Greco Lucchina, the California women's tennis team lost to No. 25 Pepperdine 5-2 on Saturday at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.

Cal has a record of 1-4. Pepperdine is 4-6.
 
The teams split the first two doubles matches, with the Waves earning a win on court one and then the Cal duo of Alsola and Naomi Xu upsetting the 39th-ranked Anastasiia Grechkina and Alexia Harmon 6-4 on court three. Pepperdine claimed the point on court three, where Cal's Greco Lucchina and Tiziana-Marie Schomburg fell to Duru Soke and Sebastianna Scilipoti 6-4.
 
Down 2-0 after an early loss in singles, Cal battled back with a win on court three, where Alsola thumped Vivian Yang 6-3, 6-0. Cal trailed 2-1.
 
"I feel like I've just been playing my tennis," said Alsola, a senior who has a 3-0 singles record in dual-match action. "For my last season, I'm focusing on myself, playing my game and just letting it happen."
 
The teams alternated singles wins and losses most of the day, and another setback left the Bears down 3-1 as freshman Naomi Xu – making her dual-match singles debut – fell to Soke 6-3, 6-2 on court six. Greco Lucchina – a freshman who improved her singles record to 6-1 – then bested Scilipoti 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 on court four to pull Cal to within one win of the Waves with the score 3-2.
 
But Pepperdine clinched its win when Alexia Harmon defeated Cal's 106th-ranked Berta Passola Folch 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(6) on court five. Leading 4-2, the Waves tacked on another win on court one, where the 65th-ranked Mao Mushika lost to 16th-ranked Savannah Broadus 7-5, 5-7, 7-2.
 
"It was a very high-quality match like yesterday," said Cal head coach Amanda Augustus, whose team lost 4-3 at No. 18 USC on Friday. "We have a great rivalry with Pepperdine, and West Coast tennis is really strong. This score doesn't show the level of play we had today in singles and doubles. All the matches were closely contested. It was good to get Naomi out there for her first singles match since January. She worked really hard to get back out on the court again.
 
"We're just five matches into the season now, and Pepperdine has played quite a few more matches than we have. You can tell – they were able to work through some things today. We're in the process of doing that right now. I'm so proud of how hard we competed. We're a really good team just like they are, and we'll just keep working hard and getting better. The matches like this one are what make the team better."
 
Added Alsola, "We fought so hard in these matches at USC and Pepperdine. I'm really proud of the way we handled things both here and yesterday. We're right there every single time in the doubles point and close in the singles. It shows how much work we've been doing, and I have no doubt we're going to have our breakthrough at some point."
 
Cal resumes play when it hosts UC Santa Barbara on March 1.
 
No. 25 Pepperdine (4-6) defeated California (1-4), 5-2
Feb. 22, 2025, in Malibu, Calif.
Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center
 
Doubles
1. No. 8 Savannah Broadus/Vivian Yang (Pepperdine) def. Mao Mushika/Berta Passola Folch (Cal), 6-2
2 Jessica Alsola/Naomi Xu (Cal) def. No. 39 Anastasiia Grechkina/Alexia Harmon (Pepperdine), 6-4
3 Duru Soke/Sebastianna Scilipoti (Pepperdine) def. Greta Greco Lucchina/Tiziana-Marie Schomburg (Cal), 6-4*
 
Order of Finish – 1, 2, 3*
*Clinched the doubles point for Pepperdine
 
Singles
1. No. 16 Savannah Broadus (Pepperdine) def. No. 65 Mao Mushika (Cal), 7-5, 5-7, 6-2
2. No. 52 Anastasiia Grechkina (Pepperdine) def. No. 70 Lan Mi (Cal), 6-2, 6-0
3. Jessica Alsola (Cal) def. Vivian Yang (Pepperdine),  6-3, 6-0
4. Greta Greco Lucchina (Cal) def. Sebastianna Scilipoti (Pepperdine), 2-6, 6-2, 6-3
5. Alexia Harmon (Pepperdine) def. No. 106 Berta Passola Folch (Cal), 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(6)^
6. Duru Soke (Pepperdine) def. Naomi Xu (Cal), 6-3, 6-2
 
Order of Finish – 2, 3, 6, 4, 5^, 1
^Clinched the overall win for Pepperdine
 
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