BERKELEY – The California women's tennis team got three big wins from freshmen in a 6-1 rout of 46th-ranked UC Santa Barbara on a windy Saturday afternoon at the Hellman Tennis Complex. First-year Golden Bear Greta Greco Lucchina clinched the victory.
 
Cal improved its record to 2-4, while the Gauchos fell to 2-6.
 
The pair of Cal sophomores Mao Mushika and Tiziana-Marie Schomburg fell to the 10th-ranked Amelia Honer and Anna Weissheim 6-0 on court one to open doubles. The Bears rebounded when Greco Lucchina and senior Lan Mi rallied from a 4-2 deficit to defeat Ali Benedetto and Raphaelle Leroux 6-4 on court three. The doubles point was decided by a close match on court two, where at one point freshman Naomi Xu and junior Berta Passola Folch trailed UCSB's Lucy Lu and Lily Pradkin 5-2. The Bears bounced back to tie the match 6-6 and force a tiebreaker, but the Bears eventually fell to the Gauchos 7-6(5). UCSB took a 1-0 lead into singles.
 
Court one singles featured a good battle between 65th-ranked Mushika and 14th-ranked Honer, with the Bear taking a tightly contested first set 6-4 and then dominating the second set 6-0 to tie the overall match 1-1.
 
After freshman Sophie Hernandez posted a 6-3, 7-6(4) triumph over Emma Tutoveanu on court six to give the Bears a 2-1 lead, Cal never looked back.
 
Over on court five, Xu followed with a 6-2, 6-2 result over Leroux to make the score 3-1 and then Greco Lucchina bested Tyra Richardson 6-4, 6-3 on court three to give Cal a 4-1 lead and the official win.
 
Mi, ranked 70th, added a 6-2, 7-6(9) win over 75th-ranked Weissheim on court two and 106th-ranked Passola Folch completed the day when she beat Benedetto 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 on court four.
 
"It's good for us to get a ranked win at Hellman," Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. "We'd still like to get that doubles point. We had a couple of new doubles pairings today, but we'll keep tinkering with it till we get it right.
 
"I was really pleased to get five of those six singles wins in straight sets. It was a really good win for Mao today over one of the best players in the country and her best win in singles thus far at Cal. Some of our younger Bears had opportunities to compete today and did a really good job, with Naomi, Sophie and Greta getting nice wins.
 
"It's a good 6-1 victory, and it sets the tone for this homestand coming up."
 
Cal hosts three matches in three days next week starting Thursday when they host No. 28 Pepperdine in the teams' second meeting this season. The Bears start their ACC schedule when they host Boston College on Friday and No. 45 Syracuse next Saturday.
 
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