After beginning the New Year in Hawaii, the California women's tennis team makes its 2024 home debut this week when the Golden Bears host the Cal Winter Invitational from Friday through Sunday at the Hellman Tennis Complex and Channing Tennis Courts. Each day's matches in the annual tournament will begin at 10 a.m. PT. Players from Saint Mary's, Cal Poly, San Francisco and USC will vie with the Bears in singles and doubles.
 
Admission is free to regular-season tennis at Cal.
 
Match Information
When: 10 a.m. PT, Friday-Sunday, Jan. 12-Jan. 14
Where: Hellman Tennis Complex, Channing Tennis Courts, Berkeley, Calif.
Watch: Cal livestream at Hellman
Scores/Draws: ITA tournament page (link to come)

Click here for Friday's schedule.

This week will mark the first incarnation of the tournament since 2022, as last season's Cal Winter Invitational was rained out.
 
Given the possibility rain in Berkeley during the tournament, particularly on Saturday, please check for updates on CalBears.com and the team's Twitter account @CalWomensTennis for details on weather delays.
 
Bears Shine In Honolulu
Cal said goodbye to Hawaii after the Bears closed out play in the Weinman Foundation Invitational on Sunday.
 
Hawaii's annual tournament – Cal's first action of 2024 – produced some high-quality results from the Bears. On Sunday, senior Valentina Ivanov defeated N.C. State's third-ranked Amelia Rajecki, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, to complete a 4-0 record in singles in the tournament, 17th-ranked junior Jessica Alsola beat the Wolfpack's 27th-ranked Abigail Rencheli, and 36th-ranked junior Katja Wiersholm defeated N.C. State's 19th-ranked Sophie Abrams, 6-2, 6-3. On Saturday, the Bears collected two other wins over ranked opponents, as sophomore Berta Passola Folch bested Rencheli and junior Lan Mi beat Abrams.
 
In doubles, Cal picked up wins over three ranked opponents, as the 14th-ranked Hannah Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika beat Florida State's 43rd-ranked Vic Allen and Millie Bissett on Thursday, the same Cal tandem beat FSU's 48th-ranked Maelie Monfils and Ellie Schoppe on Friday, and Alsola and Ivanov beat N.C. State's ninth-ranked Abrams and Anna Zyryanova, 6-4, on Sunday.
 
Mi and senior Cami Brown joined Ivanov with 4-0 singles records in Honolulu. In doubles, Mushika and Viller Moeller (4-0) and the pair of Alsola and Ivanov (1-0) were unbeaten at the UH Tennis Complex. Both doubles teams won Sunday, with Viller Moeller and Mushika defeating Rajecki and Rencheli, 6-3.
 
Cal Tabbed 19th In Preseason Poll
Cal – which makes its dual-match debut on Jan. 27 in the ITA Kickoff Weekend at Oklahoma – is ranked 19th in the ITA team preseason poll. In the ITA individual polls, three Bears are ranked in singles – No. 12 Hannah Viller Moeller (14-5), No. 17 Jessica Alsola (14-5) and No. 36 Katja Wiersholm (10-2). In doubles, the pair of Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika (15-1) is ranked 14th.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Mao Mushika and Hannah Viller Moeller reached the doubles round of 16 in the ITA National Fall Championships in November
• In October, Viller Moeller and Mushika defeated teammates Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm in the doubles final of the ITA Northwest Regional Championships, and, in September, the two Bears won the top-flight doubles title at the Cal Fall Invitational
• Along with the regional doubles title, Viller Moeller captured the regional singles crown, with a 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(6), victory over Stanford's 26th-ranked Connie Ma in the October final on The Farm; the Dane also reached the singles quarterfinals of the ITA National Fall Championships
• Alsola and Wiersholm (5-3 record this season) was ranked ninth in the first ITA poll of the season; last year the pair 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 Championships

• Alsola – currently with a doubles record of 8-4 – had a tremendous fall half of this season in singles, reaching the consolation final of the ITA National Fall Championships, advancing through the qualifying rounds to the singles main draw of the ITA All-American Championships, in which she ultimately reached the quarterfinals, and also reaching the singles round of 16 in the ITA Northwest Regional Championships
• Wiersholm had an impressive start in singles, including winning the top-flight singles title at the Cal Fall Invitational, defeating Viller Moeller. She has an overall doubles record of 8-5
• Ivanov, back for her senior dual-match season, has records of 4-0 (singles) and 3-1 (doubles)
• In singles, Mao, the first-year Bear, has a 10-3 record, including a 3-1 mark in the recent Hawaii tournament
• Lan Mi won the top-flight singles crown at the Saint Mary's Fall Invitational in October, defeating teammate Berta Passola Folch, 7-5, 7-6(2) in the final; a junior, Mi has an 18-2 record in singles and is 7-9 in doubles
• Passola Folch, in her second semester in Berkeley, is 12-5 in singles and 9-8 in doubles
• Makenna Thiel, a junior, is 11-5 in singles and 7-7 in doubles
• Senior Cami Brown has records of 10-5 in singles and 8-7 in doubles
• Freshman Tiziana-Marie Schomburg is 10-4 (singles) and 6-7 (doubles)
• In October, Cal women's tennis was named a recipient of a Newmark Award as Cal's Women's Small Team with the top cumulative GPA (3.704) from the previous year; the Bears' 3.704 was also the top GPA among all Cal teams
• Cal Athletics Hall of Famer and 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
Cal competes in the ITA Kickoff Weekend from Jan. 27-28 in Norman, Oklahoma, with the winner of the four-team event advancing to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in February. On Jan. 27 in Norman, the Bears face Illinois at 2 p.m. CT on Jan. 27, while the host Sooners play Central Florida at 10 a.m. CT. The two winners from Jan. 27 play each other the next day for the right to advance to indoor nationals.
 
Stay Posted
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