Bears Seek Indoor, ASU Trophies

Thursday, November 3

New York, N.Y.

All Day

California

UTSA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships

The Bears will compete in New York and in Arizona this week.

11/1/2016 2:59 PM | Women's Tennis

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By: Cal Athletics

BERKELEY – California's Olivia Hauger, Karla Popovic, Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr close the fall as they compete in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships that start on Thursday, Nov. 3, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York. Columbia University serves as host of the tournament, which ends on Sunday, Nov. 6.

The national indoor tournament consists of a 32-player singles draw and a 20-team doubles draw. Live scoring for national indoors will be available for the entire tournament at this Columbia webpage. FloTennis will provide live streaming coverage of the entire 2016 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships. A subscription-based company, FloTennis offers its users monthly and annual rate payment options. For more information and to view the live stream, click on this link. To view updated draws and read daily recaps from the event, visit the ITA Championship Central page here. You can also follow the conversation on Twitter by following @ITA_Tennis and using the hashtag #NIIC.

Popovic and Manasse will compete in singles, while the pair of Starr and Manasse - which is seeded third - and the duo of Hauger and Popovic will play in doubles. The draws are available on the ITA's event page by clicking here.

American players will have the opportunity to earn wild-card entries into future USTA Pro Circuit events with their results at national indoors. If an American wins or reaches the men's or women's singles final this weekend, he or she will automatically earn a wild card into a future USTA Pro Circuit tournament. American singles champions will also automatically earn a place on the 2017 USTA Collegiate National Team.

A separate Golden Bear contingent will compete at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational that runs Friday, Nov. 4, through Sunday, Nov. 6, in Tempe, Arizona. The annual ASU Thunderbird Invitational features singles and doubles tournaments.

Last Time at National Indoors & at ASU
Cal's Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr reached the semifinals at the 2015 USTA/ITA National Women's Indoor Intercollegiate Championships. They fell to Kentucky's third-seeded Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi6-4, 6-2.

Manasse was also awarded the tournament's Sportsmanship Award, along with Cal's Andre Goransson, who claimed the men's award. The award is voted on by officials and opposing coaches at the tournament.

Then-senior Klara Fabikova won the consolation singles draw, defeating Michigan's Brienne Minor, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, in the final.

In the 2015 ASU Thunderbird Invitational, then-senior Lynn Chi captured third place in main draw singles, defeating Arizona State's Ebony Panoho, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.

Scouting the Bears

Karla Popovic, a junior ranked 90th in the ITA preseason singles poll, earned her first trip to New York by winning the singles and doubles titles at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships presented by Oracle. Popovic – who is 20-0 so far this season – has had an outstanding fall, having won the Cal Fall Nike Invitational, the SMC Fall Invite and the regional, in which she beat Stanford's Emma Higuchi, 6-2, 6-2, in the final. The Zabok, Croatia, native teamed with Olivia Hauger to beat Stanford's Caroline Lampl and Kimberly Yee to claim the doubles championship at regionals to likewise advance to national indoors.
Hauger, a Tulsa, Oklahoma native, is the reigning Pac-12 Invitational Draw Champion. Hauger is 8-4 this fall, and with Popovic, holds a 9-1 record. She reached the round of 16 at the regional, the semifinals of the SMC Fall Invitational and the quarterfinals of the Cal Nike Fall Invitational. This will be Olivia's second trip to New York, as she competed in doubles at national indoors last year with then-senior Klara Fabikova.
Maegan Manasse, a senior ranked seventh in the ITA preseason singles poll, earned a singles spot in New York as a USTA wildcard. This will mark the second tournament of the fall for Manasse, who reached the regional round of 16. Manasse and fellow senior Denise Starr earned an at-large selection into New York. Manasse and Starr are ranked third nationally in the preseason poll, and reached the semifinals of the regional, falling to Hauger and Popovic.
Starr, a Brooklyn, New York product, is 7-6 on the fall, recording wins over Wichita State's 74th ranked Gabrielle Porubin and TCU's 57th ranked Donika Bashota. She competed at the ITA/Riviera Women's All-American Championships and the Oracle ITA Masters, in which she reached the round of 16. Starr is ranked 62nd in the preseason singles poll.

Next Time
Cal opens the New Year when it hosts the Cal Winter Invitational from Jan. 13-15 at the Hellman Tennis Complex and Channing Tennis Courts. The Bears will begin the dual-match season when they host one of 16 ITA Kick-Off Weekends around the nation from Jan. 29-30 at the Hellman Tennis Complex. Cal opens the four-team event against Xavier on Jan. 29. Missouri will face Old Dominion in the other Jan. 29 match, with the two winners battling on Jan. 30 for the right to qualify for the spring's indoor tournament – the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, which Cal won last season.