No. 10 Cal Hosts Hornets In NCAA First Round

BERKELEY – The 10th-seeded and 10th-ranked California women's tennis team hosts No. 17 Auburn, No. 42 BYU and Big Sky champion Sacramento State in an NCAA first- and second-round regional this week at the Hellman Tennis Complex, where the Bears have a 7-2 record in 2024. In Friday's first round, BYU and Auburn are set to play at 11 a.m. PT while Cal faces Sacramento State at 2 p.m. Friday's winners play each other at noon in Saturday's second round for the right to advance to the NCAA Super Regional round.
 
Admission is free.
 
The NCAA Super Regionals – essentially the third round or round of 16 – will be held on campus sites on May 10 or 11. From then on, teams will compete at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in the May 17 quarterfinals, May 18 semifinals and May 19 final.
 
Match Details
 
NCAA Round of 64
 
No. 17 Auburn (16-10) vs. BYU (17-7)
When: Friday, May 3, 11 a.m. PT
Where: Hellman Tennis Complex, Berkeley, Calif.
Watch: Livestream
Follow: Live Scores
 
[10] No. 10 Cal (18-6) vs. Sacramento State (20-7)
When: Friday, May 3m 2 p.m. PT
Where: Hellman Tennis Complex, Berkeley, Calif.
Watch: Livestream
Follow: Live Scores
 
NCAA Round of 32
 
Cal/Sac State vs. Auburn/BYU
When: Saturday, May 4, noon PT
Where: Hellman Tennis Complex, Berkeley, Calif.
Watch: Livestream
Follow: Live Scores
 
4 Bears Earn To NCAA Individual Invites
When they're finished with their team commitments in the NCAA Championship, four Golden Bears will focus on the NCAA individual tournaments at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater. Hannah Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika were chosen for the NCAA Doubles Championship while Viller Moeller, Valentina Ivanov and Katja Wiersholm were named to the NCAA Singles Championship, the NCAA announced Tuesday. Both tournaments are scheduled to run May 20-25.
 
This marks the first time each of the Bears will compete in her respective postseason tournament. Ivanov and Wiersholm previously played in the NCAA Doubles Championship, with Ivanov partnering with Haley Giavara in 2021 and Wiersholm teaming with Jessica Alsola in 2023.
 
Competing in the doubles field of 32, Mushika, a freshman, and Viller Moeller, a senior, have earned a No. 18 ranking and compiled a 25-11 record prior to the start of the NCAA team tournament. The pair had a strong start to the season, winning the top doubles title in the Cal Fall Invitational and capturing the crown in the ITA Northwest Regional Championships. The two Bears reached the round of 16 in the ITA National Fall Championships, with their loss at nationals representing their lone setback in the fall, when they finished 11-1.
 
Viller Moeller joins Ivanov and Wiersholm in a field of 64 in NCAA singles. The Copenhagen, Denmark, product is ranked 41st with a 22-21 record in her final season at Cal. 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. At last week's Pac-12 Championship, she defeated Chelsea Fontenel, 6-3, 6-3, on court one to clinch 10th-ranked Cal's 5-0 win over 27th-ranked Arizona State in the quarterfinals.
 
Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Ivanov was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week on March 26 for her part in the Bears' wins over Hawaii, Colorado and Utah. The senior won all three of her singles matches – clinching the 6-1 thumping of the Buffaloes – and paired with Alsola to capture all three of their doubles matches. In early April, Ivanov competed for New Zealand in the Billie Jean King Cup, and last Friday she beat 25th-ranked Kimmi Hance, 6-0, 6-2, in Cal's 4-2 triumph over UCLA in the Pac-12 Championship semifinals. Currently ranked 52nd, Ivanov owns a 16-9 record.
 
Ranked 44th, Wiersholm has a 25-6 record and has clinched four Cal wins this season, 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. She's won five of her last six singles matches heading into the NCAA Championship. Early in the season, the junior from Kirkland, Washington, won the top-flight singles title at the Cal Fall Invitational and advanced to the quarterfinals at ITA regionals.
 
Last Time: Cal Falls In Last Pac-12 Final
Playing in the Pac-12 Championship for the last time, 10th-ranked Cal lost to third-ranked Stanford 4-0 in the final last Saturday at Libbey Park in Ojai.
 
Stanford – the second seed – won the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead over the Bears. The Cardinal clinched on court three, with Cal's Katja Wiersholm and Berta Passola Folch falling to Katherine Hui and Valencia Xu, 6-4.
 
Stanford wrapped up its conference title against the Bears on singles court two, with Cal's 52nd-ranked Valentina Ivanov falling to the ninth-ranked Connie Ma, 6-3, 6-1.
 
With Cal moving on to the Atlantic Coast Conference next season, Saturday marked the last appearance by the Bears in the Pac-12 Championship in Ojai. The conference tournament has been played in Ojai for numerous years at the same time as a collection of other college, community college, high school and junior tournaments – though the Bears won the Pac-12 championship in 2021 when the tournament was briefly played in San Diego.
 
Cal defeated 27th-ranked Arizona State 5-0 in last Thursday's quarterfinal round and beat top-seeded and eighth-ranked UCLA – the regular-season Pac-12 champion – 4-2 in last Friday's semifinals, with both matches played at Weil Tennis Academy.
 
The Bears took a 1-0 lead over the Sun Devils when Passola Folch and Wiersholm beat Marianna Argyrokastriti and Emilija Tverijonaite 7-5 to wrap up the doubles point.
 
Cal was dominant in singles, winning every first set. Hannah Viller Moeller eventually topped Chelsea Fontenel 6-3, 6-3 to clinch the victory seconds before Lan Mi beat Patricija Spaka 6-2, 7-5 to complete the 5-0 match.
 
In the semifinals, Cal trailed 1-0 after doubles, with UCLA clinching the point when Ahmani Guichard and Sasha Vagramaov edged Passola Folch and Wiersholm, 7-6(3), on court three.
 
But Cal didn't back down from having to win four times in singles to beat UCLA. The Bears won four of six first sets, and ultimately Jessica Alsola triumphed over the Bruins' 65th-ranked Bianca Fernandez 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to book Cal's spot in the final.
 
Last Time Vs. Sac State
Cal thrashed Sacramento State 7-0 on April 5, 2018, in Berkeley, with Anna Bright clinching the victory in a 6-2, 6-2 win over Ana Loaiza Esquivias at court-one singles. The pair of Olivia Hauger and Julia Rosenqvist clinched the doubles point for the Bears with a 6-2 result over Maria Fernandez Gonzalez and Carolina Chernyetsky on court one.
 
Poll Position
The ITA posted its most recent team and individual rankings on April 23, with the next set of rankings coming out Thursday.
 
Cal was ranked 10th in the team poll last week. The Bears have eight individual rankings, with Jessica Alsola represented in four of them. The duo of Hannah Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika (25-11) is ranked 18th, Alsola and Valentina Ivanov (16-5) 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 (22-21) sits at No. 41, Wiersholm (25-6) is ranked 44th, Ivanov (16-9) is ranked 52nd and Alsola (24-17) is ranked 82nd.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Mao Mushika is tied with Katja Wiersholm for the team lead in clinching wins this season with four and the Japan product (27-8) ranks second on the team in singles wins behind junior Lan Mi (39)
• Mushika 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 25-11 doubles record
• A junior from Fresno, Jessica Alsola clinched Cal's Pac-12 semifinal win over UCLA along with a pair of 6-1 routs of No. 59 Oregon and Washington State in the regular season
• In the fall, Alsola (now 24-17) 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 27-9 in doubles, Alsola is 15-5 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
• With a 39-5 record, Mi tops Cal in singles victories
• A transfer from Cornell, 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, Alsola's three, Valentina Ivanov's two and Hannah Viller Moeller's one, Cal's other clinching win came courtesy of Berta Passola Folch against Arizona State
• A product of Barcelona, Spain, Passola Folch – who's won eight of her last nine singles matches – has a 21-7 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 last week'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 Hornets

• Sacramento State beat Weber State 4-2 in the Big Sky tournament final
• Mayya Gorbunova earned a spot on the All-Big Sky Singles First Team
• Irene Riva and Lou Baudouin are on the All-Big Sky Singles Second Team
• Two Sac State duos are on the All-Big Sky Doubles Second Team – Riva and Maddy Ferreros as well as Baudouin and Gorbunov
• Sophie Breault is in her second season as head coach of Sacramento State

Scouting the Tigers

• Auburn was 9-4 in the SEC and as the No. 5 seed reached the conference tournament quarterfinals, losing to No. 17 Tennessee 4-3
• Before the Tennessee match, the Tigers topped No. 67 Kentucky, 4-0 in their SEC tournament opener
• Three Tigers are ranked in singles in No. 8 Carolyn Ansari, No. 67 DJ Bennett and No. 87 Ariana Arsenault
• Ansari (a Nos. 9-16 seed) earned an at-large berth in NCAA singles while Bennett is an alternate
• Three Auburn duos are ranked in doubles in No. 11 Arsenault/Bennett, No. 55 Adeline Flach/Angella Okutoyi and No. 64 Bennett/Selin Ovunc
• The tandem of Arsenault and Bennett is an at-large entrant in NCAA doubles
• Ansari and Arsenault were named to the All-SEC first team while Bennett and Okutoyi earned second-team status
• Men's tennis assistant coach Lester Cook is Auburn's interim head coach

Scouting the Cougars

• BYU finished with an 8-5 Big 12 record to take fifth place in the conference's regular-season standings
• After beating No. 12 Iowa State 4-0 in the first round of the conference tournament, the Cougars lost to No. 4 Texas Tech 4-0 in the quarterfinals
• Bobo Huang is ranked 118th in singles
• Emilee Astle and Kendall Novick – an alternate pair for NCAA doubles – are ranked 47th in doubles
• Holly Hasler is in her sixth season as BYU's head coach

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