College Roundup Curran wins doubles title

By John Manley

For California’s Amy Jensen, an NCAA doubles championship is old hat, but for teammate Claire Curran, the attainment of that goal was a first and served to punctuate the end of her four-year tennis career at Berkeley.

The duo of Curran and Jensen recently defeated Georgia’s Marissa Catlin and Lori Grey in the national title match at Malibu, Calif., in three sets. The Cal pair lost the first set, 4-6, but dominated the second frame, 6-1, before taking the match, 7-5, in the third set. Jensen won the title in 1998 and 1999 with the now-graduated Amanda Augustus.

Curran and Jensen had been ranked fifth nationally before the tournament. They finished the season with a 23-7 record.

"Claire really carried us during some of the tough points of the match," said Jensen of Curran, who hails from Dublin. "It was a tremendous effort."

Curran and Jensen advanced to the final match with a 6-3, 6-4 semifinal victory over Pepperdine’s Paola Palencia and Ipek Senoglu.