Cal Battles L.A. Schools At Hellman

Friday, February 24

Berkeley, Calif.

1:30 PM

California

UCLA

Denise Starr and the Bears host UCLA in a TV match Friday and then host USC Saturday. (Photo by Cal.ISIPhotos.com)

Photo by: cal.isiphotos.com

2/22/2017 1:57 PM | Women's Tennis

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By: Cal Athletics

BERKELEY – California is back in the friendly confines of the Hellman Tennis Complex this week to host UCLA and USC in a pair of nonconference dual matches. The Pac-12 Network will broadcast the match between the No. 7/18 Golden Bears (4-2) and No. 9/14 Bruins (6-1) at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, with play-by-play man Ted Robinson and analyst/Cal alumna Amy Jensen providing commentary. Saturday's match with the 26th-ranked Trojans (3-2) is slated for a noon start.

Cal will play the Los Angeles schools in their traditional Conference matches in a few weeks (see below).

Admission is free at Hellman. Fans can also follow every home Cal match on Twitter by following @CalWomensTennis.

With the UCLA match on the Pac-12 Networks, the Hellman live stream will not be in use on Friday. But fans will be able to watch Saturday's USC match on the Hellman live stream available by clicking here.

Last Time: Cal Falls In Quarterfinals at ITA Indoors
Defending champion Cal fell to eventual runner-up and second-ranked North Carolina in the quarterfinals of the ITA National Women's Team Indoor Championship on Feb. 11 in New Haven, Connecticut. The Golden Bears, then ranked No. 7/9, had opened the tournament on Feb. 10 with a 4-0 blanking of No. 13 Georgia Tech. On Feb. 12, Cal ended its indoor run with a 4-2 consolation loss to No. 6 Oklahoma State.

Poll Position
Cal is ranked seventh in the USTA Top 25 poll, which also ranks UCLA 14th and does not include USC.

The Bears collected the following individual Oracle/ITA Rankings from Tuesday's polls: Singles – No. 23 Karla Popovic, No. 47 Maegan Manasse, No. 90 Olivia Hauger; Doubles – No. 25 Manasse and Maya Jansen, No. 50 Popovic and Hauger.

Scouting the Bears

Maya Jansen collected the first Pac-12 Player of the Week honor of her career on Feb. 13 for her play at national indoors; she won three times in singles (including two upsets of ranked opponents) and paired with Maegan Manasse to upset OSU's fifth-ranked Vladica Babic and Carla Tur Mari, 6-3
Manasse and Jansen have a 7-1 record and are 4-1 at court-one doubles; Jansen – a grad student at Cal after winning two NCAA doubles titles at Alabama – is 11-5 in singles
Karla Popovic has a 25-1 record and is unbeaten so far in 2017, which has included four victories and three unfinished matches for the junior; her only loss this season was to Ohio State's top-ranked Francesca Di Lorenzo in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships round of 16 in November; that snapped a 21-match winning streak for Popovic
Last fall, Popovic won the singles title and paired with Olivia Hauger to capture the doubles crown at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships; the two Bears have a 15-4 doubles record
Maegan Manasse has an 8-3 singles record; the four-time All-American won the singles and – with Jansen – doubles titles at this year's Cal Winter Invitational
Last season, the pair of Manasse and Denise Starr finished as the NCAA doubles runner-up; this season, the current pairing of Starr, a senior, and freshman Alexis Nelson has a 5-0 record at court-three doubles
Hauger has a 15-5 singles record, including a 4-1 record on court four and a 1-0 mark on court three
Sophomore Maria Smith (18-8 in singles) was named the Athletic Study Center Scholar-Athlete of the Week for Feb. 6-10
Cal alumna and 10th-year head coach Amanda Augustus (class of 1999) was named the 2016 Wilson/ITA National Coach of the Year after leading Cal to the No. 1 ranking for several weeks in 2015-16, to the No. 1 seed at NCAAs and to the NCAA semifinals
Augustus was a two-time NCAA doubles champion with Amy Jensen in their playing days in Berkeley
Zack Warren in in his third year as the Cal women's tennis assistant coach

Scouting the Bruins

UCLA's lone loss was a 4-2 setback against Georgia Tech on Jan. 29 in Atlanta
In their last match, the Bruins beat USC, 4-3, on Feb. 18 at USC
Freshman Ena Shibahara is ranked No. 2 in singles; Shibahara and Jada Hart are ranked fourth in doubles
Stella Sampras Webster is in her 21st season as UCLA's head coach

Scouting the Trojans

USC's last match was the 4-3 loss to UCLA
Four Trojans are ranked in singles in No. 33 Gabby Smith, who is this week's Pac-12 Player of the Week, No. 55 Jessica Failla, No. 80 Zoë Katz and No. 104 Madison Westby
USC has four ranked doubles teams in No. 21 Katz and Westby, No. 45 Failla and Rianna Valdes, No. 46 Katz and Smith, and No. 59 Westby and Angela Kulikov
Richard Gallien is in his 22nd season as head coach of the Trojans

Next Time
Cal faces the same two teams in Los Angeles, as the Bears open Pac-12 Conference play at USC on March 10 and at UCLA on March 11.