The 2023 Cal women's rowing season gets underway this weekend at the California Challenge Cup in Newport Beach on Saturday. The event will feature crews from 10 universities throughout California which will race in a head-to-head format. As the rowing season doesn't feature any official preseason races, the California Challenge Cup will give ninth-year head coach Al Acosta a good gauge of where his team is at after completing a several-month long offseason training program.

"The California Cup is a series of four shorter races in one day," Acosta said. "In our sport, we train all year long and we might race eight times or so. So to be able to go down the racecourse four times in one day is a good opportunity for them to practice getting the boat up to speed, sustaining their speed and then trying to elevate the speed towards the end of the race."

Coming off a sixth-place finish at last year's NCAA Championships, Acosta has high expectations for this year's squad and knows the team will be tested early with four of the top six teams in the nation competing at the San Diego Crew Classic in early April.

"I think the San Diego Crew Classic should be a good test with four of the top six teams there," Acosta said.

After last season, several members of the team continued to compete and gained some valuable experience on the international stage. At the annual Henley Royal Regatta in the U.K. last summer, returners Kaitlyn Turner (cox), Angela Szabo, Issy Cassidy, Julia Hunt-Davis, Antonia Galland, Katie McDermott, Ella Berger, Sophie Ward and Sammie Henriksen all competed in the eights; Fien van Westreenen raced in a pair; Della Luke, Tabo Stekelenburg, Annabel Oertel and Jane Perrignon competed in the fours; and Sophie Faliero and Carly Wright raced in the Thames Challenge Cup.

"I think that experience kind of paid off in the fall mostly where the kids came back rowing pretty well," Acosta said. "I think they had a standard that was a little bit higher than it was in the previous year just based on the vast majority of the team rowing over the summer."

One of the groups that Acosta is looking forward to seeing perform is the freshman class, as he sees it as an area of strength for the team. Newcomers Minou Bouman, Lotta van Westreenen, Lily Pember and Giulia Bosio all competed for their respective countries at last year's Under-23 and Under-19 World Rowing Championship at Lake Varese, Italy. Pember ended up winning a gold medal for the United States in the women's eight at the U-19 Championships.

"I think the freshman class is having a big impact on overall competitiveness of the team," Acosta said. "There will be freshmen in probably every NCAA racing boat by the end of the year. They're the class that achieved a good amount before they got here, but they're also good kids, hard workers and are bringing really good energy to the team."

When asked about a rower he looks forward to seeing compete this year, Acosta couldn't help but bring up Cassidy, who never rowed competitively before walking on at Cal.

"She's been here for a few years and came back for her COVID exception year," Acosta said. "I think it meant a lot to her to have this opportunity to come back. She had a great year last year and I think she's going to have an even better year this year. She's stronger and I think she's better prepared to have a really good spring season. She learned how to row here. It's really cool to see her be in full force five or six years later."

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