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No. 10 Cal Opens Pac-12s Vs. No. 27 ASU

by calbears.com
Apr 23, 2024
Cal junior Lan Mi will play in her first and last Pac-12 Championship starting Wednesday in Ojai.

BERKELEY – The 10th-ranked and fourth-seeded California women's tennis team faces 27th-ranked and fifth-seeded Arizona State to open the Pac-12 Championship in the quarterfinal round on Thursday at 9 a.m. PT in Ojai. During the regular season, the Golden Bears edged ASU, 4-3, in Tempe, Arizona.
 
The winner of the conference tournament – which concludes with Saturday's final – earns the Pac-12's automatic berth to the NCAA Championship. Live scores are available for each match, and the final will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.
 
The Pac-12 Championship was first held as a team tournament in 2017. Previously, the Pac-12 hosted singles and doubles conference tournaments, with Cal alumna Maegan Manasse winning the last Pac-12 singles title in 2016. Cal captured the 2021 Pac-12 tournament championship, while Stanford won the other five tournament titles. The Pac-12 Championship was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Match Details
 
[4] No. 10 Cal (16-5) vs. [5] No. 27 Arizona State (14-8)
When: Thursday, April 25, 9 a.m. PT
Where: Weil Tennis Academy, Ojai, Calif.
Follow: Live Scores
 
Last Time: Cal Falls In Big Slam
Then-No. 9 Cal closed out the regular season with the Big Slam against third-ranked Stanford on Friday at the Hellman Tennis Complex, with the Bears falling, 5-2.
 
Before the match, Cal honored Valentina Ivanov and Hannah Viller Moeller on Senior Day, with the veteran Bears set to play in the last regular-season match of their careers.
 
In doubles, the teams split courts one and two, with the Cal pair of Ivanov and Jessica Alsola prevailing on the latter court. After a close battle that ended in a tiebreaker, Cal's Katja Wiersholm and Berta Passola Folch fell to Katherine Hui and Valencia Xu, 7-6(4), and the Bears trailed, 1-0.
 
Cal fell behind 2-0 early in singles when the 38th-ranked Viller Moeller lost to the 10th-ranked Ma, 6-1, 6-0, on court two. The Bears rallied, as Lan Mi beat Valencia Xu, 6-3, 6-0, on court six, and Mushika topped Katherine Hui, 6-3, 6-4, on court five to tie the overall match 2-2. The 49th-ranked Ivanov then fell 6-3, 7-5 to the 35th-ranked Blake on court one, and Stanford led 3-2.
 
The Bears needed to win the last two singles matches to take the Big Slam, and the resurgent Blue & Gold pushed both matches to three sets. But the 45th-ranked Wiersholm lost to the 32nd-ranked Yepifanova, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, on court three to clinch the Cardinal's win, and then the 81st-ranked Alsola fell to Blokhina, 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-2, to wrap up the match at 5-2.
 
Last Time Vs. ASU
On March 9 in its second Pac-12 match of the season, Cal defeated Arizona State in the desert to start conference play at 2-0.
 
The Bears trailed the Sun Devils 1-0 after losing the doubles point for just the second time at that point of the year. The Cal duo of Valentina Ivanov and Jessica Alsola beat Rachel Hanford and Sara Svetac, 6-3, on court two. But losses on court one and, in the clinching result, on court three gave ASU the early lead.
 
Cal bounced back in singles – with the 109th-ranked Lan Mi beating Patricija Spaka, 6-1, 6-0, the 23rd-ranked Hannah Viller Moeller defeating Marianna Argyrokastriti, 6-1, 6-1, and the 46th-ranked Ivanov prevailing, 7-6(4), 6-3, over Chelsea Fontenel – to take a 3-1 lead.
 
A clash of two nationally ranked players on court three – Cal's 35th-ranked Alsola lost to ASU's 103rd-ranked Emilija Tverijonaite, 6-3, 7-6(6) – brought the score to 3-2.
 
Cal needed to win one of the two remaining matches, which had each moved into a third set, while the Sun Devils needed to win both to capture the overall match. Passola Folch obliged, with the 107th-ranked sophomore besting Hanford, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, to give Cal a 4-2 lead and secure the victory. The last match ended with the 92nd-ranked Mao Mushika falling to ASU's Svetac, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(3), to make the final score 4-3.
 
Poll Position
Cal collected its most rankings of the season in this week's ITA polls, with Bears featured nine times across the three polls. After losing to third-ranked Stanford – and with Pac-12 regular-season champion UCLA moving into the top 10 – Cal dropped one spot in this week's ITA team rankings to No. 10.
 
The Bears have eight individual rankings, with Jessica Alsola represented in four of them. The duo of Hannah Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika (25-10) is ranked 18th, Alsola and Valentina Ivanov (15-4) are ranked 56th, Alsola and Katja Wiersholm (7-3) are ranked 74th, and Alsola and Berta Passola Folch (3-1) are ranked 79th. In singles, Viller Moeller (21-19) sits at No. 41, Wiersholm (25-6) is ranked 44th, Ivanov (15-8) is ranked 52nd and Alsola (22-16) is ranked 82nd.
 
Scouting the Bears

  • Valentina Ivanov returned to Berkeley last week after playing for New Zealand in the Billie Jean King Cup the previous week
  • Ivanov has a 15-8 singles record, including 4-3 on court one
  • Named the Pac-12 Player of the Week on March 26, Ivanov has an 18-6 doubles record, including a 15-4 mark with Jessica Alsola
  • Two of Ivanov's singles wins clinched Cal victories over San Diego and Colorado
  • Katja Wiersholm has records of 25-6 in singles and 18-12 in doubles
  • Wiersholm has clinched a total of four Cal wins, including a 5-2 result at Washington, the 4-0 season-opening win over Illinois, a 6-1 thrashing of Utah and a 4-3 win over UCLA
  • The junior also won the top-flight singles title at the Cal Fall Invitational and advanced to the quarterfinals at regionals
  • Mao Mushika is tied with Wiersholm for the team lead in clinching wins this season and has a 25-8 singles record
  • The first-year Bear has clinched a 4-3 thriller over No. 3 Pepperdine, a 6-1 rout of Hawaii, a 4-1 win over No. 21 Washington at national indoors and a 5-2 win over No. 41 Arizona in the Pac-12 opener
  • Mushika also has partnered with Hannah Viller Moeller all season to post a 25-10 doubles record
  • The duo won the title of the ITA Northwest Regional Championships and reached the round of 16 in the ITA National Fall Championships
  • Viller Moeller has a 21-19 singles record
  • In the fall, Viller Moeller won the singles title in the ITA Northwest Regional Championships and reached the singles quarterfinals of the ITA National Fall Championships
  • Also in the fall, Jessica Alsola (now 22-16) reached the consolation final of the ITA National Fall Championships, advanced through the qualifying rounds to the singles main draw of the ITA All-American Championships – in which she reached the quarterfinals – and reached the round of 16 in the ITA Northwest Regional Championships
  • Also 26-8 in doubles, Alsola is 14-4 at court-two doubles when paired with Valentina Ivanov
  • Lan Mi, who posted a 16-match win streak in singles between mid-October and late January, has clinched three Cal wins – a 5-2 win at San Diego State, a 6-1 rout of UCSB and, in the ITA Kickoff Weekend, a 4-3 win over host and No. 16 Oklahoma that qualified the Bears for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship
  • A junior who has a team-best singles record of 38-5, Mi won the top-flight singles crown at the Saint Mary's Fall Invitational in October
  • Along with Wiersholm's four clinching wins, Mushika's four, Mi's three, Ivanov's two and Alsola's two, Cal's other clinching win came courtesy of Berta Passola Folch against Arizona State
  • A product of Barcelona, Spain, Passola Folch – who's won seven of her last eight singles matches – has a 20-7 singles record
  • This season marks Cal's last run in the Pac-12, as the Bears will compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) beginning next year
  • Cal is one of nine Pac-12 teams ranked in Tuesday's ITA team poll
  • Cal Athletics Hall of Famer and two-time NCAA doubles champion Amanda Augustus – the 2021 Pac-12 Coach of the Year and five-time ITA Northwest Region Coach of the Year – is in her 17th year as head coach at her alma mater
  • Assistant coach and former Cal men's tennis player Sean Hill is in his second year on the Cal staff

Scouting the Sun Devils

  • Arizona State has won six consecutive dual matches heading into Ojai
  • ASU edged Arizona, 4-3, on Saturday in the Territorial Cup clash in Tempe
  • Chelsea Fontenel beat Kayla Wilkins, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, at court-two singles to clinch the win over Arizona
  • In singles, Giulia Morlet is ranked 74th and Emilija Tverijonaite is ranked 108th
  • The pair of Fontenel and Patricija Spaka is ranked 35th in doubles
  • Sheila McInerney is in her 40th season as head coach at Arizona State

 
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