BERKELEY – The 12th-ranked California women's tennis team opens 2023 in the Weinman Foundation Invitational from Thursday through Sunday in Honolulu. Players from No. 14 USC, Washington State and No. 22 Iowa State will compete with the Golden Bears and host Hawaii in the annual tournament.

The event includes singles and doubles competition at the UH Tennis Complex. Play begins at 9 a.m. HST each day. Live scores and streams aren't available for the Weinman Foundation Invitational. Fans can follow updates of Cal matches on CalBears.com and at @CalWomensTennis.
 
Newcomer Berta Passola Folch Joins The Bears
Last season when the Bears played in Honolulu, they went unbeaten in doubles and dropped just two singles matches over three days at the Weinman Foundation Invitational. Seven Bears – including Katja Wiersholm, who made her Cal debut in Honolulu – posted 3-0 singles records in the tournament.
 
This year, newcomer Berta Passola Folch will make her debut for the Bears in Hawaii. The 5-7 freshman hails from Barcelona, Spain, and attended her first two years of high school at the Copenhagen International School in Denmark and her last two years of high school at La Chataigneraie in Switzerland. Passola Folch, who turned 18 in December, holds a career-best ITF juniors ranking of 162.
 
Currently ranked 27th in Spain's national senior women's rankings, Passola Folch was ranked No. 2 in Spain at the under-18 level in 2022. In 2021 – when she won national singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles in Denmark – Passola Folch was ranked second among U18 Danish players. Passola Folch captured an ITF J3 singles title in El Prat de Llobregat, Spain, in 2022, and in 2021, she claimed an ITF J4 singles crown in Belgium as well as two ITF J5 singles titles in Denmark. Also a strong doubles player, Passola Folch won two ITF junior doubles championships in Europe in 2021.
 
2022 Fall Recap
Cal is coming off a strong start to the 2022-23 season. Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm played on the last day of the fall half of the year, with the sophomores competing in the consolation doubles finals at the ITA National Fall Championships in San Diego in November. In their previous tournament, the two Bears captured the doubles crown at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships at Stanford. Alsola, Wiersholm and junior Hannah Viller Moeller also reached the singles quarterfinals at regionals. In October, Alsola won the consolation singles title at the ITA All-American Championships in North Carolina.
 
In international competition in December, senior Haley Giavara joined Cal head coach Amanda Augustus in France, as Team USA won its latest title in the Master'U BNP Paribas Championships. Giavara partnered with North Carolina's Fiona Crawley to contribute a doubles win in the United States' 4-2 victory over Great Britain in the final.
 
Poll Position
On Wednesday, the ITA revealed its first team rankings of 2023, with Cal earning the No. 12 spot. The Bears finished the 2021-22 season ranked 11th.
 
In the last individual ITA polls of 2022, Jessica Alsola ranked 16th in singles, Hannah Viller Moeller ranked 93rd, the duo of Alsola and Katja Wiersholm sat at No. 15 in doubles and the pairing of Alsola and senior Valentina Ivanov was 51st.
 
Scouting the Bears

• In the final ITA polls of the 2021-22 season, Haley Giavara was ranked 36th and Jessica Alsola was 70th in singles, while in doubles Giavara and Valentina Ivanov were 40th and Alsola and Katja Wiersholm were 74th
• Five Bears returning for the 2022-23 season earned 2022 All-Pac-12 honors, led by second-team selections Giavara and Alsola, and including honorable mentions Wiersholm, Erin Richardson and Hannah Viller Moeller
• A two-time singles All-American – who earned her second honor last season - Giavara posted records of 15-14 in singles and 21-9 in doubles last spring
• Alsola compiled the best singles record (32-9) for the Bears and was also 23-9 in doubles last year
• Over the summer, Alsola won a doubles title and was the singles runner-up in a 15K Frederiksberg tournament in Denmark
• Wiersholm – who was 21-3 in singles and 17-5 in doubles as a freshman – won her first 17 singles matches before losing in Cal's 4-3 win over No. 5 Pepperdine in Berkeley
• Wiersholm reached the doubles semifinals and the singles round of 16 of the USTA Billie Jean King Girls' 18 National Championships in August
• Viller Moeller, a junior, was 27-13 in singles and 11-7 in doubles as a sophomore
• Over the summer, Viller Moeller repeated as the Danish singles and mixed doubles champion
• Also over the summer, Ivanov won a 15K Monastir doubles title in Tunisia
• As a junior, Ivanov was 14-13 in singles and 19-10 in doubles
• 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 Field in Hawaii

• USC features five players ranked in singles – No. 2 Madison Sieg, No. 17 Snow Han, No. 24 Eryn Cayetano, No. 83 Emma Charney and No. 96 Naomi Cheong – and one ranked doubles team – No. 20 Cayetano/Sieg
• Iowa State has three ranked singles players – No. 57 Thasaporn Naklo, No. 80 Anna Supapitch Kuearum and No. 114 Sofia Cabezas – and three ranked doubles teams – No. 17 Ange Oby Kajuru/Chie Kezuka, No. 39 Kajuru/Miska Kadleckova and Kezuka/Naklo (tied for 40th)
• Hawaii's Ana Vilcek – who garnered All-Big West honorable mention last season – reached the singles round of 32 in the ITA Southwest Regional Championships in the fall
• Cal Athletics Hall of Famer Raquel Atawo – an NCAA Doubles champion, a five-time All-American and, formerly, a volunteer assistant coach as a Golden Bear – is in her second year as head coach of Washington State

Next Time
The Bears host their annual Cal Winter Invitational from Jan. 13-15 at the Hellman Tennis Complex and the Channing Tennis Courts.
 
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