BERKELEY – Karla Popovic, Maegan Manasse and Maya Jansen are headed to Athens, Georgia, later this month to play in the NCAA individual tournaments, the NCAA announced on Wednesday. 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 at the University of Georgia. The individual tournaments run May 24-29, after the conclusion of the NCAA team tournament in Athens.
 
As one of eight singles players seeded 9-16, Popovic earns All-American status, which is well-deserved in what's been a breakout season for the Cal junior. Popovic, from Zabok, Croatia, has a 38-4 singles record, including a 9-1 record on court two and a 7-2 record on court one. She was ranked 13th in the most recent (April 25) Oracle/ITA poll, and on Feb. 27 Popovic was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week. One of her biggest wins this year was a victory over UCLA's second-ranked Ena Shibahara; more recently Popovic has beaten Stanford's Melissa Lord when the Cardinal player was ranked 23rd and 26th.
 
Popovic also made news in the fall when she won the singles and, with Olivia Hauger, the doubles titles at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships to qualify for the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships. This will be the first NCAA individual championship for Popovic.
 
Conversely, Manasse will be playing in her fifth and sixth NCAA individual tournaments. The Cal senior earned All-America honors in her previous four – two singles and two doubles – tournaments and could do the same this year. Ranked 38th in the latest singles poll, Manasse has a 15-7 singles record (7-4 at court 1). She collected her sixth Pac-12 Player of the Week award on April 17 for her play in routs of Washington and Washington State, with Manasse clinching the victory over the Huskies. She's had several quality wins this season, including two against UW's Stacey Fung – once when the latter was ranked 29th and once when the Husky was ranked 35th.
 
Manasse has also excelled in doubles partnering with Jansen. The experienced Bears (13-5 overall, 10-5 court 1) have altogether played in the last three NCAA doubles finals, with Manasse pairing with senior Denise Starr to finish as the 2016 runners-up and Jansen winning national championships in 2014 and 2015 at Alabama. Jansen and Manasse were ranked 36th in the April 25 Oracle/ITA doubles poll. Among their biggest results this season were upset wins over Oklahoma State's fifth-ranked Vladica Babic and Carla Tur Mari and Washington's 35th-ranked Miki Kobayashi and Nour Abbes.
 
The Cal team – seeded 13th in the NCAA team tournament – would join the three Bears in Athens if it wins the NCAA first- and second-round matches next week at the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley.