Cal Meets Vandy In NCAA Round of 16

ATHENS, Ga. – California is back in the NCAA round of 16, and on Friday at 4 p.m. ET the 13th-seeded/13th-ranked Golden Bears (19-5) will battle the fourth-seeded/third ranked Vanderbilt Commodores (22-5) at the University of Georgia's Dan Magill Tennis Complex.

The Bears have appeared in every NCAA team tournament, spanning 36 postseasons from 1982-2017, and have now reached the round of 16 or better 33 times, including 11 consecutive appearances. This is also the 12th consecutive season that Cal hosted opening NCAA matches, including the first and second rounds from 2008-15 and regionals from 2006-07.

Live Coverage
Fans can watch the live streams and follow the live scores of the NCAA matches at the Henry Feild Courts and McWhorter Courts in Athens by clicking here. The Bears will also tweet updates from @CalWomensTennis.

NCAA Tournament Site
For more details – including the match schedule, ticket information and much more – please visit Georgia's NCAA Championship site by clicking here.

Last Time: Cal Sweeps Past SJSU, LSU To Reach Athens
Olivia Hauger clinched Cal's NCAA rounds of 64 and 32 wins over the weekend at the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley to send the Golden Bears to Athens for the round of 16. In the May 13 win over San Jose State, the Cal sophomore beat Tamara Culibrk at court-four singles, 6-2, 6-0, to settle the 4-0 win over the Spartans. Hauger defeated Jessica Golovin, 6-3, 6-1, the next day to clinch the Bears' 4-0 victory over the Tigers.

Popovic, Manasse and Jansen Punch Tickets to Athens
Cal stars Karla Popovic, Maegan Manasse and Maya Jansen garnered at-large berths to the NCAA individual tournaments in Athens. The pair of Manasse and Jansen will play in the 32-team NCAA Doubles Championship, while Popovic and Manasse are among the 64 players who will compete in the NCAA Singles Championship at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. The individual tournaments run May 24-29, after the conclusion of the team tournament.

As one of eight singles players seeded 9-16, Popovic – who earned invitations to play in the NCAA individual tournaments for the first time – earns All-American status.

Poll Position
Cal moved up three spots to No. 13 in the May 4 Oracle/ITA Rankings. In singles, junior Karla Popovic is ranked 10th, senior Maegan Manasse is ranked 34th and senior Denise Starr is ranked 123rd. The pair of Manasse and Maya Jansen is ranked 34th, while Popovic and Olivia Hauger are ranked 55th in doubles.

Scouting the Bears

Both of Karla Popovic's singles matches in the first two NCAA rounds went unfinished, so she still has a team-high 38 victories and still has a 38-4 record
Popovic did win twice in doubles with Olivia Hauger in the rounds of 64 and 32; the 55th-ranked duo beat San Jose State's Marine Dans and Gaelle Rey, 6-1, and then clinched the doubles point against LSU with a 6-3 win over Jade Lewis and Rebecca Weissmann
Popovic, who began the 2016-17 season 21-0, was named Pac-12 Player of the Week on Feb. 27 for winning twice in singles and twice in doubles in Cal's 6-1 victories over UCLA on Feb. 24 and USC on Feb. 25
Against the Bruins, Popovic upset the second-ranked Ena Shibahara, 6-3, 6-3, and the next day she defeated the Trojans' 33rd-ranked Gabby Smith, 7-6(5), 6-1
In the fall, Popovic won the singles title and paired with Hauger to capture the doubles crown at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships; the Cal duo has a 25-6 doubles record
Maegan Manasse improved to 16-7 in singles after beating San Jose State's 81st-ranked Sybille Gauvain, 6-3, 6-2, in the round of 64
Manasse, the April Pac-12 Player of the Week, closed the regular season with a 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(4) come-from-behind, upset win over Stanford's 41st-ranked Caroline Doyle in the Big Slam
Denise Starr, a two-time All-American in doubles, improved to 22-12 in singles when she defeated LSU's 105th-ranked Ryann Foster, 6-3, 6-2
Sophomore Olivia Hauger is 27-9 in singles, including 11-4 on court four
Hauger has clinched wins a team-high nine times for Cal this season; that included her 6-3, 6-0 win over Victoria Matejevic that decided an eventual 7-0 rout of Washington State on Senior Day
Hauger collected the March 20 Pac-12 Player of the Week accolade for her play in Cal's wins over Arizona and Arizona State
Jansen, a two-time NCAA champion in doubles, and Manasse – an NCAA doubles runner-up last season – improved to 15-5 after beating the 88th-ranked Gauvain and Marie Klocker, 6-2, to clinch the point against San Jose State and then upsetting LSU's 16th-ranked Joana Valle Costa and Ryann Foster, 6-2
In singles, Jansen has a 22-8 record, including 12-2 on court five; that includes her 6-1, 6-4 win over LSU's Weissmann
Jansen earned the Pac-12 Player of the Week honor on Feb. 13 for her play at the ITA National Women's Team Indoor championship
Sophomore Maria Smith improved to 29-13 (8-4 on court 6) in singles with a 6-1, 6-1 win over SJSU's Rey
Smith was named the Athletic Study Center Scholar-Athlete of the Week honor for the week of Feb. 6-10
Cal alumna Amanda Augustus (class of 1999) was named the 2016 Wilson/ITA National Coach of the Year and was a two-time NCAA doubles champion in her playing days in Berkeley; she is in her 10th season as head coach of the Bears
Zack Warren in in his third year as the Cal women's tennis assistant coach

Scouting Vanderbilt

Three Commodores garnered ITA Ohio Valley Regional honors in Senior Player of the Year Sydney Campbell, Rookie of the Year Emma Kurtz and Player to Watch Astra Sharma
Four Vandy players are ranked in singles in No. 4 Sharma, No. 15 Campbell, No. 87 Fernanda Contreras and No. 102 Christina Rosca
Sharma and Emily Smith are ranked No. 1 in doubles, while Sharma and Rosca are ranked 86th
Geoff McDonald – the ITA Ohio Valley Regional Head Coach of the Year – is in his 22nd year as the head coach at Vandy; he led the Dores to the 2015 NCAA team championship
Associate head coach Aleke Tsoubanos earned this year's ITA Ohio Valley Regional Assistant Coach of the Year honor

NCAA Lauds Bears For APR
Cal women's tennis was one of a record-seven Cal teams to earn NCAA Public Recognition Awards for their exceptional results in the classroom. Each of the seven – women's tennis, men's tennis, women's golf, women's gymnastics, lacrosse, volleyball and men's water polo – posted a perfect multiyear Academic Progress Rate of 1,000. Cal's seven recognized programs ties for the second most in the Pac-12.

The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team's academic performance. The most recent APRs are multiyear rates based on scores from the 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 academic years.

Last Time at NCAAs: Manasse/Starr Reach Final After Bears Reach Team Semis
Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr capped a tremendous season for Cal with a runner-up finish in the 2016 NCAA Doubles Championship on May 30 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The fourth-seeded Cal stars fell to Florida's third-seeded Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan, 6-2, 6-0, in the final. The Bears beat several talented pairs – including North Carolina's top-seeded Haley Carter and Whitney Kay in the semifinals, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0(7) – on their way to the final. Manasse produced Cal's best finish in NCAA singles, as she reached the round of 16.

Also in Tulsa, top-seeded Cal reached its first NCAA team semifinals since 2009, Amanda Augustus' second year as head coach. The Bears fell in an upset to 12th-seeded Oklahoma State, 4-3.

Cal's NCAA History
Cal has reached the NCAA team final and finished as the national runner-up three times, including in both of Amanda Augustus' first two seasons – 2008 and 2009 – as Cal head coach. Cal also played in the 1980 final. Including the 2008 and 2009 finals, the Bears have advanced to at least the NCAA round of 16 in nine straight seasons, which included the first eight of Augustus' years as head coach.

The Bears have won two NCAA singles championships and five NCAA doubles titles, with Augustus and Amy Jensen capturing back-to-back doubles crowns in 1998 and 1999. Jensen threepeated by winning the 2000 doubles title with Claire Curran, Raquel Kops-Jones and Christina Fusano won the 2003 championship, and Mari Andersson and Jana Juricova took home the 2009 doubles crown. In singles, Juricova captured the 2011 championship, with Suzi Babos winning Cal's first NCAA singles title in 2006.

Next Time
Maya Jansen, Maegan Manasse and Karla Popovic will play in the NCAA individual championships run from May 24-29 in Athens.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Olivia Hauger

Maya Jansen

Maegan Manasse

Karla Popovic

Maria Smith

Denise Starr

California Golden Bears Athletics