BERKELEY – The California women's tennis team competes at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships from Friday through Tuesday at Stanford. Eight of the Golden Bears will be vying for singles and doubles titles along with the chance to advance to the ITA National Fall Championships in November.
 
Cal's top duo of Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm along with pairs Hannah Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika, Berta Passola Folch and Makenna Thiel, and Lan Mi and Cami Brown will play in doubles on The Farm. All eight will also compete in singles.
 
The draws for the ITA Northwest Regional Championships will be posted on this ITA site closer to the start of the tournament. Fans can keep track of the action through Stanford's livestream page.
 
Bears Earn National Rankings
The doubles pair of Katja Wiersholm and Jessica Alsola – which had a 16-14 record and was ranked 18th to end 2022-23 – is ranked ninth in the 2023-24 ITA preseason rankings. Last year, the duo competed in the NCAA Doubles Championship, falling in the round of 32, and the Bears also reached the consolation doubles semifinals of the 2022 ITA All-American.
 
In singles, Alsola is ranked 47th in this year's singles preseason poll. Last year, she posted a 29-6 singles record, won the consolation singles title at the All-American, was ranked 64th in the final ITA poll and played in the NCAA Singles Championship. Wiersholm, who had an 18-9 singles record last year, is ranked 98th.
 
Alsola Reaches Quarterfinals At ITA All-American
Jessica Alsola made a deep run at the recent ITA All-American Championships in Cary, North Carolina. First, the Fresno product defeated three players – including two ranked opponents (Texas A&M's 56th-ranked Mia Kupres and USC's 38th-ranked Eryn Cayetano) – in qualifying singles to reach the main draw.
 
She then beat Michigan's 80th-ranked Lily Jones, 5-7, 6-0, 6-3, in the opening round of 32 in the main draw and bested Stanford's 14th-ranked Angelica Blake, 6-2, 6-2, in the round of 16. On Oct. 6, Alsola faced another ranked opponent in the quarters in South Carolina's 25th-ranked Sarah Hamner, with Alsola falling 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
 
Bears Capture Titles In Cal Fall Invite
The Bears collected the top two titles on the last day of its Cal Fall Invitational on Oct. 1, with Katja Wiersholm winning the singles crown and the duo of Hannah Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika capturing the doubles final.

Viller Moeller, a senior, and Mushika, a freshman, were named the doubles champions of the Blue or top flight, with their BYU opponents withdrawing from the Sunday final.

Cal had a shot at another doubles title, when the top-seeded pair of Lan Mi and Tiziana-Marie Schomburg played in the Gold doubles final. But the two new Bears fell to Juliette Daries and Tian Yu Dong of Saint Mary's, 8-4, at Hellman.

Wiersholm cruised through her Blue singles semifinal, beating Stanford's Eleana Yu, 6-2, 6-3. In the Gold Singles semifinal, the top-seeded Mi likewise won in straight sets, besting San Francisco's Simran Chhabra, 6-0, 6-4.

Doubles partners Mushika and Viller Moeller faced off in the other Blue singles semifinal, with the Cal veteran prevailing. Mushika won the first set 6-0, Viller Moeller won the second 7-6(4), and then the younger Bear retired with an injury, leaving the Dane to meet Wiersholm in the final.

Mi battled Long Beach State's Rhona Cook in the Gold final. A transfer from Cornell, the Cal junior hadn't dropped a set through four matches entering the final. But Cook won 6-4, 6-3.

In one of the last matches of the Cal Fall Invitational, Wiersholm and Viller Moeller battled for supremacy at Hellman. While her teammate pushed her, Wiersholm – who didn't lose a set in singles in the tournament – triumphed, 7-5, 7-6(7).
 
Scouting the Bears

• After posting a 21-3 singles record last season at Cornell, Lan Mi – who hails from Berkeley Heights, New Jersey – ended the 2022-23 season as the fifth-ranked player in the ITA's northeast region
• Freshman Mao Mushika, the younger sister of former USF player Chiho Mushika, hails from Ichinomiya, Japan
• Tiziana-Marie Schomburg is a product of Isernhagen, Germany
• Cal Athletics Hall of Famer and 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 – is in her 17th year as head coach at her alma mater
• Assistant coach and former Cal men's tennis player Sean Hill is in his second year on the Cal staff

Next Time
The Bears will play in the Saint Mary's Invitational from Oct. 27-29 in Moraga.
 
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