Left to right: Olivia Hauger, Julia Rosenqvist & Rosenqvist/Hana Mraz are headed to Orlando.
WTEN4/30/2019 3:37 PM | By: Cal Athletics
Bears Claim NCAA Individual Tourney Berths
BERKELEY – California will send three Golden Bears to Florida for the national individual tournaments, with
Olivia Hauger and
Julia Rosenqvist claiming at-large berths to the NCAA Singles Championship and Rosenqvist and
Hana Mraz earning an at-large spot to the NCAA Doubles Championship taking place at the USTA National Campus in Orlando. The 64-player singles tournament begins May 20, while the 32-team doubles championship starts May 21, upon the conclusion of the NCAA team tournament on May 19 in Orlando.
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This is the second straight season that Rosenqvist, a sophomore, and Hauger, a senior, will compete in NCAA singles and the first time that either Rosenqvist or Mraz – also a sophomore – will vie for the NCAA doubles crown. In 2018, Hauger and Rosenqvist fell in the NCAA singles round of 64.
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In Orlando, Hauger and Rosenqvist seek to win Cal's third NCAA singles title, with Jana Juricova winning the most recent NCAA championship for the Bears in 2011.
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Rosenqvist, a native of Onsala, Sweden, is currently ranked 41st in singles and has a 22-16 record that includes wins over big-time opponents including South Carolina's Ingrid Gamarra Martins – currently ranked fourth – 7-5, 6-1; Vanderbilt's Fernanda Contreras, now ranked sixth, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0; N.C. State's Anna Rogers, ranked ninth, 7-6(4), 6-1; and Pepperdine's 36th-ranked Ashley Lahey, 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-4, to clinch Cal's 4-3 upset of the seventh-ranked Waves.
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A product of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hauger is ranked 47th and boasts a record of 23-9. The Cal co-captain has posted her share of big wins this season, including one against Florida's Ida Jarlskog – then ranked ninth and now 15th – 6-4, 7-6(5), that clinched Cal's 4-3 upset of No. 11 Florida; a 6-1, 7-6(5) win over Pepperdine's 14th-ranked Evgeniya Levashova; and a 6-1, 6-4 result against Stanford's 32nd-ranked Melissa Lord in the quarterfinals of the ITA Northwest Regional Championships.
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Rosenqvist and Mraz will attempt to win the Cal's sixth NCAA doubles championship and the first since Juricova and Mari Andersson captured the title for the Bears in 2009. Two of those Cal doubles championships belong to head coach
Amanda Augustus, who as a Cal player teamed with Amy Jensen to triumph in 1998 and 1999.
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Cal's current court-one doubles team has an 8-6 record and, as of the April 23 Oracle ITA poll, is ranked 17th. Among Mraz and Rosenqvist's big wins this season were a 6-2 upset of Arizona State's Lauryn John-Baptiste and Ilze Hattingh, who were then ranked eighth and now ranked No. 1; a 7-6(3) upset of UCLA's fourth-ranked Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield; and a 6-3 upset of Pepperdine's sixth-ranked Lahey and Levashova.
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Before any of the Bears get to Florida, Cal will face Long Beach State in the NCAA's team tournament's opening round of 64 at 10 a.m. on Friday at Pepperdine's Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.
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