BERKELEY – The 12th-ranked California women's tennis team makes its 2023 home debut and starts the dual-match season this weekend, as the Golden Bears host UC Santa Barbara and 10th-ranked Pepperdine in nonconference action at the Hellman Tennis complex.
 
Cal faces the Gauchos on Saturday at 12 p.m. and then battles the Waves on Sunday at 12 p.m.
 
Admission is free for regular-season tennis at Hellman. Live streams and scores for the six Hellman courts are available by clicking here. Fans can also follow updates of Cal matches on Twitter at @CalWomensTennis.
 
Cal Winter Invitational Rained Out
The Cal Winter Invitational – which was scheduled for Jan. 13-15 and was supposed to mark the Bears' 2023 home debut – was rained out.
 
Bears Start 2023 In Hawaii
Cal opened the New Year from Jan. 5-7 in the Weinman Foundation Invitational at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. Highlights from the three-day event included the debut of freshman Berta Passola Folch and the return of senior Haley Giavara, who posted her first singles and doubles wins of the season after missing the first half of the year. Also, Passola Folch, Jessica Alsola and Makenna Thiel each posted a 2-1 singles record in the event.
 
Poll Position
Cal is ranked No. 12 in the Jan. 18 ITA poll. The Bears finished the 2021-22 season ranked 11th.
 
In the last individual ITA polls of 2022, Jessica Alsola (9-2 record) ranked 16th in singles, Hannah Viller Moeller (9-2) ranked 93rd, the duo of Alsola and Katja Wiersholm (13-4) sat at No. 15 in doubles and the pairing of Alsola and senior Valentina Ivanov (3-1) was 51st.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Haley Giavara ended fall 2022 in France, where the Cal senior and Team USA won the Master'U BNP Paribas Championship, with Cal head coach Amanda Augustus again on the U.S. staff
• Sophomores Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm were outstanding in the fall, as the duo won the ITA Northwest Regional Championships and reached the consolation doubles final at the ITA National Fall Championships
• Alsola, Wiersholm and junior Hannah Viller Moeller reached the singles quarterfinals at ITA regionals
• Also last fall, Alsola won the consolation singles title at the ITA All-American Championships
• Former two-time NCAA doubles champion Amanda Augustus – the 2021 Pac-12 Coach of the Year and five-time ITA Northwest Region Coach of the Year (including in 2021-22) – is in her 16th year as head coach at her alma mater
• Associate head coach Zack Warren – the 2022 ITA Northwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year, who has collected four regional awards overall – is in his ninth year on the staff

Scouting the Gauchos

• UCSB plays at UC Davis on Friday at 1 p.m. in its dual-match opener
• Amelia Honer is ranked 49th in singles
• The 2022 Big West Champion Gauchos ended last season with a 21-7 record after falling in the second round of the NCAA Championship
• Also in 2021-22, Shakhnoza Khatamova, now a senior, played in the NCAA Singles Championship, falling in the first round
• Simon Thibodeau is in his 11th season as head coach of UCSB

Scouting the Waves

• Sunday's match is the opener for the Waves
• In Pepperdine's most recent competition, Lisa Zaar won the top-flight singles title in UNLV's Freeman Memorial Championship on Jan. 15
• Zaar won the singles title at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships in the fall
• In singles, Janice Tjen is ranked 12th and Savannah Broadus is ranked 21st
• The doubles duo of Tjen and Broadus – which reached the 2022 NCAA Doubles Championship semifinals – is ranked fourth
• Last season, Pepperdine finished 23-7 as it reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship
• Per Nilsson is in his ninth year as Pepperdine's head coach

Next Time
From Jan. 27-28, Cal hosts one of 15 ITA Kickoff Weekends around the nation, with the winner of each of the four-team events advancing to the ITA National Indoor Team Championship at the University of Washington. The Bears welcome Georgia Tech, San Diego and Princeton to Berkeley, with Cal playing Princeton and Georgia Tech facing USD on Jan. 28. After a consolation match on Jan. 28, the two winners compete for the right to advance to Seattle.
 
Stay Posted
For further coverage of the Bears, follow them on Twitter (@CalWomensTennis), Instagram (@CalWomensTennis) and Facebook (@CalWomensTennis).