BERKELEY – After an unexpectedly long layoff, the California women's tennis team returns to action on the road this weekend at Pac-12 Conference rivals UCLA and USC. The No. 61 Golden Bears (4-5, 1-1 Pac-12) play the 30th-ranked Bruins (6-3, 1-1) on Saturday at noon and play the No. 38 Trojans (9-5, 1-1) on Sunday at noon. Both matches will be played in Los Angeles.
 
Click here to access the live stream and live scores for the UCLA match. Here's the live stream and live scores link for the USC match. Fans can also follow updates of all the Bears' competitions on Twitter at @CalWomensTennis.
 
Cal, which last played on March 5 in a 4-3 win at Colorado, had its March 12 match vs. Hawaii in Berkeley canceled due to rain. The Bears have had three home dual matches either canceled or postponed due to inclement weather this season, including a Feb. 4 nonconference contest vs. UCLA and a Feb. 5 match vs. Pepperdine. The annual Cal Winter Invitational was also wiped out by rain in January. The Bears have since added a nonconference match vs. Loyola Marymount – on April 2 at noon – to its schedule.
 
Cal Splits First Pac-12 Matches
Berta Passola Folch earned her first clinching victory in Cal's 4-3 victory at Colorado on March 5. The Bears started off the road trip with a 4-3 loss at Utah in their Pac-12 opener on March 3.
 
In the triumph over the Buffaloes, the Bears won the doubles point, with the 16th-ranked Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm defeating Antonia Balzert and Aya El Sayed, 6-4, to clinch. Passola Folch also partnered with Hannah Viller Moeller to beat Ellen Puzak and Betina Tokac, 6-0. Later, Passola Folch – a freshman who hails from Barcelona – beat Tokac, 6-4, 6-0, in Cal's first conference win of the season.
 
Last Year Vs. UCLA, USC
Last season, Cal lost at UCLA, 6-1, in February. A March 2022 match against the Bruins in Berkeley was canceled due to health and safety protocols within the UCLA program.
 
On March 26, 2022, Hannah Viller Moeller clinched a 4-3 win over 17th-ranked USC in Berkeley. The Dane defeated Grace Piper, 6-4, 6-4, to secure the result.
 
Poll Position
Cal is ranked 61st in this week's ITA team poll. In the most recent ITA singles poll, Jessica Alsola – who has won nine straight matches to improve her record to 18-3 – is ranked 40th. The duo of Alsola and Katja Wiersholm (14-7) is ranked No. 15 in doubles.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Cal – which went 8-1 in the conference in the 2021-22 season – is the defending Pac-12 regular-season champion
• The Bears also won the Pac-12 Championship crown in the 2020-21 season
• Hannah Viller Moeller clinched Cal's first three victories this season, including the 6-1 win over UC Santa Barbara on Jan. 21, the 4-1 win over Princeton in the ITA Kickoff Weekend on Jan. 27 and the 5-1 result over SDSU on Feb. 24
• 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 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 Viller Moeller reached the singles quarterfinals at ITA regionals
• Also last fall, Alsola won the consolation singles title at the ITA All-American Championships, beating USD's Solymar Colling in the final, 6-2, 6-3
• 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
• Sean Hill is in his first year as Cal's volunteer assistant coach, after playing as a graduate student for the Cal men's tennis team in 2022

Scouting the Bruins

• In its last two matches, UCLA upset No. 4 Ohio State, 4-3, on March 12 at home and won at then-No. 42 USC, 4-1, on March 16
• Three Bruins are ranked in singles in No. 23 Fangran Tian, No. 78 Kimmi Hance and No. 87 Ava Catanzarite
• The doubles duo of Hance and Elise Wagle is ranked sixth
• Stella Sampras Webster is in her 27th season as head coach of UCLA

Scouting the Trojans

• USC hosts No. 18 Stanford on Saturday at noon
• In their prior two contests, the Trojans won both ends of a home doubleheader on March 18, blanking Dartmouth, 4-0, and beating No. 39 Princeton, 4-2
• Trojans Madison Sieg (No. 5), Eryn Cayetano (No. 35) and Snow Han (No. 83) are ranked in singles
• The pair of Cayetano and Sieg is ranked 22nd in doubles, while the duo of Han and Naomi Cheong is ranked 33rd
• Alison Swain is in her sixth year as USC's head coach

Next Time
Cal hosts three matches in three days starting on March 31 vs. No. 32 Arizona State, continuing on April 1 vs. 47th-ranked Arizona and concluding on April 2 vs. No. 52 LMU at the Hellman Tennis Complex.
 
Stay Posted
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