Cal Plays UCLA, Pepperdine In SoCal

BERKELEY – The 18th-ranked California women's tennis team returns to action when the Golden Bears (1-1) play at No. 2 UCLA (7-1) on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and then play at No. 12 Pepperdine (4-3) on Saturday at 12 p.m.

Fans can follow the match at UCLA through the live stream and live scores link here and can follow the Pepperdine match via the Waves' live stream and live scores here. The Bears will also tweet score updates from @CalWomensTennis.

Poll Position
Along with Cal's No. 18 ranking in the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25 from Wednesday, the Bears are ranked 45th in Tuesday's Oracle ITA team poll. In the Oracle ITA individual polls, three Bears are ranked in No. 13 Haley Giavara (17-5), No. 28 Valentina Ivanov (13-5) and No. 50 Julia Rosenqvist (13-4). The duo of Giavara and Anna Bright (9-4) is ranked 25th in doubles.

UCLA is ranked No. 2 and Pepperdine is ranked No. 12 in the Tennis Channel/USTA poll.

Scouting the Bears

Haley Giavara has posted a strong freshman season so far, with wins over six singles opponents who are currently ranked, including North Carolina's No. 5 Alexa Graham, Duke's No. 7 Kelly Chen and Stanford's No. 9 Michaela Gordon
Valentina Ivanov most recently helped New Zealand win four matches to advance to the next round of Fed Cup; on Feb. 8, she beat Shaira Hope Rivera, 7-5, 6-1, to lead her country to a 2-1 win over the Philippines in the final of the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Group II round robin
In her most recent match, Julia Rosenqvist defeated then-63rd-ranked Sonia Smagina, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, in the Bears' 4-3 win at No. 19 Kansas (see below)
Anna Bright and Haley Giavara were 6-2 in the fall, when they reached the doubles semifinals of the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships and of the ITA Northwest Regional Championships
Cal alumna and former two-time NCAA doubles champion Amanda Augustus is in her 13th season as the Bears' head coach

Scouting the Bruins

UCLA is coming off a 4-0 loss to North Carolina in the final of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship final
Four Bruins are ranked in singles in No. 8 Abbey Forbes, No. 12 Elysia Bolton, No. 19 Jada Hart and No. 114 Annette Goulak
The pair of Bolton and Hart – which won the doubles title at the 2019 Oracle ITA National Fall Championships – is ranked No. 1
Stella Sampras Webster is in her 24th year as head coach at UCLA

Scouting the Waves

Pepperdine lost at No. 13 Oklahoma State, 4-3, on Feb. 16, one day after winning 5-2 at Oklahoma
In singles, Ashley Lahey is ranked No. 2, Anastasia Iamachkine is ranked 45^th and Jessica Failla is ranked 53rd
In 2019, Pepperdine beat Cal, 4-0, in the second round of the NCAA tournament, after the Bears topped the Waves, 4-3, in the regular season
Per Nilsson is in his sixth season as the Waves' head coach

Last Time: No. 16 Bears Edge No. 19 Kansas, 4-3
The 16th-ranked Cal women's tennis team shook off a 3-1 deficit and rebounded to knock off No. 19 Kansas, 4-3, on Jan. 25 to end the ITA Kick-Off Weekend in the consolation match in Lawrence, Kansas. Freshman Valentina Ivanov defeat Luniuska Delgado, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, at court-three singles to clinch the victory for the Golden Bears. Cal lost to No. 20 Virginia, 4-1, in its ITA Kick-Off opener.

Next Time
Cal makes its 2020 dual-match home debut when the Bears host San Diego State on Feb. 29 at the Hellman Tennis Complex.