BERKELEY – The California women's tennis team will open the 2023-24 season with the annual Cal Fall Invitational that runs Friday through Sunday at the Hellman Tennis Complex and Channing Tennis Courts.
 
Matches are slated to begin at 8:30 a.m. PT on Friday and then 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

As with all regular-season Cal tennis matches at Hellman and Channing, admission is free to the Cal Fall Invitational.
 
The Cal Fall Invitational includes players from 16 teams – Cal, BYU, Cal Poly, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Long Beach State, Nevada, Pacific, Sacramento State, Saint Mary's, San Francisco, San Jose State, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Stanford and Utah – vying for singles and doubles titles. Please check back here on Thursday afternoon for the draws, which will be available here. Scores will be posted here each day.
 
Fans can watch the action at the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley through the free livestream by clicking here. A livestream is not available at the Channing Tennis courts.
 
Eight of the Golden Bears – returners Cami Brown, Berta Passola Folch, Makenna Thiel, Hannah Viller Moeller and Katja Wiersholm along with newcomers Lan Mi, Mao Mushika and Tiziana-Marie Schomburg – will compete in the Cal Fall Invite. Jessica Alsola will miss the fall invitational and instead make her way to Cary, North Carolina, to compete in singles qualifying (scheduled for Monday through Tuesday) at the ITA All-American Championships. She'll later be joined by Wiersholm in Cary, with the two Bears playing in the doubles main draw, which is scheduled for Oct. 4-8.
 
In last season's Cal Fall Invite, Stanford's Connie Ma won the singles title, and the Cardinal pair of Ma and Alexandra Yepifanova won the doubles title.
 
Alsola, Wiersholm 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 also reached the consolation doubles semifinals of the 2022 ITA All-American Championships.
 
In singles, Alsola – who 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 last season – is ranked 47th in this year's preseason poll. Wiersholm, who was 18-9 last year, is ranked 98th.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Lan Mi, a junior from Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, is a transfer from Cornell
• After posting a 21-3 singles record, Mi 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
Jessica Alsola will play in singles qualifying and the pair of Alsola and Katja Wiersholm will compete in the doubles main draw of the ITA All-American Championships at Cary Tennis Park.
 
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