BERKELEY – The 26th-ranked California women's tennis team begins play in the NCAA Championship first round on Friday at 11 a.m. CDT/9 a.m. PDT in Austin, Texas, where the 12-9 Golden Bears face 30th-ranked San Diego (12-10) for the second time this season.
 
This marks the Bears' 40th appearance in the NCAA Championship.
 
The University of Texas hosts the four-team regional that includes Cal, USD and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (25-2). The eighth-seeded and ninth-ranked Longhorns (21-4) play the Islanders in a first-round match at 2 p.m. CDT on Friday. The two first-round victors will play in the second round at 4 p.m. CDT on Saturday for the right to advance to a super regional at a campus site TBA.
 
Cal hosted San Diego in the ITA Kickoff Weekend final during the regular season on Jan. 28 in Berkeley. Jessica Alsola's 6-3, 6-1 singles win over USD's Claudia De Las Heras was the fourth victory of the Cal sophomore's eventual 18-match winning streak. But the Toreros beat the Bears 4-1 to earn a trip to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
 
Fans can follow the rematch on the Texas live stream by clicking here and via the Texas live scores page here. Fans can also follow updates of all Cal matches on Twitter at @CalWomensTennis.
 
After the conclusion of the NCAA Super Regional (or third round) on May 12 or May 13 at campus sites, the team tournament shifts to a designated site for the quarterfinals, semifinals and final. The USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida, will host the last three rounds from May 17-20.
 
Alsola, Wiersholm Named To NCAA Individual Tournaments
On Tuesday, the 55th-ranked Jessica Alsola earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Singles Championship, while the 12th-ranked pair of Alsola and Katja Wiersholm was named to the NCAA Doubles Championship field.
 
Both individual postseason tournaments will take place from May 22-27 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida, with the singles and doubles championships beginning after the end of the NCAA team tournament.
 
Alsola will compete in the NCAA singles tournament for the second time. The Fresno product has a 29-4 record – which includes a 19-1 dual-match record – and leads the Bears in wins. She had a strong second season and posted a career-best 18-match winning streak in singles that was snapped in the regular-season finale. Alsola also had an excellent fall, when she won the consolation singles crown in the ITA All-American Championships.
 
This will mark Wiersholm and Alsola's first appearance in the NCAA Doubles Championship. The young Bears had a strong fall, when they won the doubles title in the ITA Northwest Regional Championships and reached the consolation final at the ITA National Fall Championships. Ranked as high as fourth in the ITA doubles poll, the Bears bring a 16-12 record into the postseason.
 
Haley Giavara Named Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete Of The Year
A two-time All-American and two-time member of the Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll, Cal senior Haley Giavara added to her list of accolades when she was named the 2023 Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
 
The San Diego product is the Bears' second Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, with former Cal star Jana Juricova claiming the award in 2012.
 
Giavara has been an important member of the Bears since her first season in 2019-20, when she was named the Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year and the ITA Northwest Region Rookie of the Year and earned her first singles All-America honor. She finished the season with rankings of No. 15 in singles and, with Anna Bright, No. 31 in doubles.
 
Giavara was ranked 27th in singles and, with Valentina Ivanov, 50th in doubles to end her sophomore season, in which she led the Bears to a Pac-12 championship and to the round of 16 in the NCAA Championship and competed in the NCAA singles and doubles tournaments.
 
She capped her junior season in 2021-22 with another run in the NCAA Singles Championship and a No. 36 ranking, after leading the Bears to the Pac-12 regular-season title and to the round of 16 in the NCAA team tournament. Giavara and Ivanov were ranked 40th to conclude the year.
 
Also a two-time All-Pac-12 selection (2021, 2022) and an ITA Scholar-Athlete (2021), Giavara – who is currently ranked 105th in singles – will graduate with degrees in legal studies and sociology next month.
 
Cal Reaches Pac-12 Semis
Seeded second, Cal shut out 10th-seeded Colorado, 4-0, in the quarterfinal round of the Pac-12 Championship. The Bears captured the doubles point when Haley Giavara and Valentina Ivanov defeated Elys Ventura and Mila Stanojevic, 6-2, to clinch. Jessica Alsola later beat Ventura, 6-4, 6-2, in singles to secure Cal's trip to the conference semifinals.
 
Cal ran into the 28th-ranked and sixth-seeded USC Trojans in the semis. While Alsola and Hannah Viller Moeller earned singles wins, Cal fell to the eventual Pac-12 runner-up, 4-2.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Cal has won five of its last seven matches prior to NCAAs
• The 2022 Pac-12 regular-season champion, Cal won the Pac-12 tournament championship for the first time in 2021
• Hannah Viller Moeller leads the Bears in clinching wins with four; she clinched Cal's first three victories - a 6-1 win over UC Santa Barbara on Jan. 21, a 4-1 win over Princeton in the ITA Kickoff Weekend on Jan. 27 and a 5-1 result over SDSU on Feb. 24; she wrapped up another Cal victory on March 31, when the Bears beat No. 26 Arizona State, 6-1
• Along with clinching the win over Oregon on April 9 in Eugene, Katja Wiersholm clinched 6-1 Cal victories over Washington State on April 14 and Washington on April 15 in Berkeley
• Jessica Alsola and Valentina Ivanov have each clinched two Cal wins, while freshman Berta Passola Folch – in her first semester in Berkeley – has clinched once
• 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
• 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
• 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 (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 Toreros

• San Diego lost its last match, 5-1, to No. 51 LMU in the WCC Tournament semifinals
• USD finished the regular season with a 6-1 WCC record to take second place in the conference
• Three Toreros are ranked in singles: No. 72 Kailey Evans, No. 90 Abigail Desiatnikov and No. 100 Solymar Colling
• In doubles, the duo of Evans and Elizabeth Goldsmith is ranked 19th and the pair of Colling and Evans is ranked 75th
• Five Toreros earned All-WCC singles honors: Colling (first team); Evans, Claudia De Las Heras and Goldsmith (second team); and Desiatnikov (honorable mention)
• Evans and Goldsmith garnered All-WCC first-team acclaim in doubles
• Nadia Abdala – the WCC Coach of the Year – is in her first season as San Diego's head coach

 
Scouting the Longhorns

• Texas beat No. 14 Oklahoma, 4-2, in the Big 12 Conference Championship final to earn an automatic spot in the NCAA Championship
• The Longhorns – who last lost at then-No. 7 N.C. State, 5-2, on April 10 – have won four straight
• Texas went 8-1 in the Big 12 to take the regular-season conference title and the top seed in the Big 12 tournament
• Four Longhorns are ranked in singles: No. 71 Nicole Khirin, No. 95 Charlotte Chavatipon, No. 111 Marlee Zein and No. 113 Sabina Zeynalova
• Three Texas doubles teams are ranked: No. 28 Chavatipon/Zeynalova, No. 68 Khirin/Zein and No. 82 Chavatipon/Khirin
• Numerous Longhorns gathered Big 12 honors: Khirin (Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, All-Big-12 First-Team Singles and All-Freshman Team), Chavatipon (All-Big-12 First-Team Singles), Chavatipon/Zeynalova (All-Big-12 First-Team Doubles), Zeynalova (All-Big-12 Second-Team Singles) and Nicole Rivkin (All-Freshman Team)
• Howard Joffe is in his eighth season as head coach of Texas

Scouting the Islanders

• Texas A&M-Corpus Christi ended the Southland Conference season with a 7-0 record
• The Islanders beat Incarnate Word, 4-1, in their conference tournament final to threepeat as Southland champions and earn an automatic berth to the NCAA Championship
• The Islanders are making their 16th appearance in NCAAs
• Texas A&M-Corpus Christi collected a slew of Southland Conference honors: Coach of the Year (Steve Moore); Newcomer of the Year and first-team All-SLC at No. 2 singles (Naomi Moi McKenzie); first-team All-SLC at No. 4 singles (Valeria Cherfus); first-team All-SLC at No. 5 singles (Victoire Delattre); and first-team All-SLC at No. 3 doubles (Cherfus/Kateryna Rublevska)
• Director of Tennis Steve Moore is in his 25th year in charge of the Islanders

 
Last Time In NCAAs
Cal won a pair of 4-0 matches in the first and second rounds of the 2022 NCAA Championship in Berkeley, with then-senior Julia Rosenqvist clinching wins over Northern Arizona and then Texas Tech, to send the Bears to the NCAA Super Regional in Raleigh, North Carolina. But the 11th-ranked/seeded Bears fell to sixth-ranked/seeded N.C. State, 4-0.
 
Haley Giavara and Jessica Alsola moved on to the NCAA Singles Championship. Alsola lost in the first round, but Giavara won twice to reach the round of 16 and earn the second singles All-America honor of her career. Giavara fell in the tournament's third round to end the season for the Bears.
 
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