Four Golden Bears will represent the California women's tennis team at the NCAA individual championships in the first year that the national tournaments will take place in the fall. Cal is tied for the most singles entrants, with Katja Wiersholm, Mao Mushika and Lan Mi competing in the NCAA Singles Championship starting Tuesday at Baylor. The pair of Mushika and Jessica Alsola plays in the NCAA Doubles Championship starting Wednesday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
 
The Bears are looking to add to the storied program's total of seven NCAA individual titles – five in doubles (Amanda Augustus/Amy Jensen, 1998; Augustus/Jensen, 1999; Jensen/Claire Curran, 2000; Raquel [Kops-Jones] Atawo/Christina Fusano, 2003; Mari Andersson/Jana Juricova, 2009) and two in singles (Susie Babos, 2006; Juricova, 2011).

Here are the Bears' first-round match times:

Singles – First Round/Round of 64, Tuesday
No. 80 Lan Mi (Cal) vs. Kaitlyn Carnicella (South Carolina), 8:30 a.m. CT
No. 33 Katja Wiersholm (Cal) vs. Xin Tong Wong (Wichita State), 9 a.m. CT
No. 107 Mao Mushika (Cal) vs. No. 82 Angella Okutoyi (Auburn), 1 p.m. CT
 
Doubles – First Round/Round of 32, Wednesday
No. 16 Jessica Alsola/Mao Mushika (Cal) vs. [1] No. 15 Kimmi Hance/Elise Wagle (UCLA), time to be announced
 
Here are more details for the final competitions of the fall:
 
NCAA Individual Championships
When: Tuesday, 7 a.m. PT; Wednesday, 7 a.m. PT; Thursday, 8 a.m. PT; Friday, 8 a.m. PT; Saturday, 8 a.m. PT; Sunday, 9 a.m. PT
Where: Baylor, Hurd Tennis Center, Waco, Texas
Watch: ESPN+ (Cracked Racquets CrossCourt Cast)
Draws: Singles, Doubles
Live scores: iOnCourt
Baylor's NCAA Championship Site
 
Poll Position
Five Bears are ranked in the first ITA singles poll of 2024-25 – No. 30 Jessica Alsola, No. 33 Katja Wiersholm, No. 80 Lan Mi, No. 106 Berta Passola Folch and No. 107 Mao Mushika. Three Cal pairs are ranked in doubles – No. 16 Alsola and Mushika, No. 25 Passola Folch and Wiersholm, and No. 79 Mi and freshman Naomi Xu.
 
Alsola, Mushika Qualify For NCAA Doubles
In September, the Cal pair of senior Jessica Alsola and sophomore Mao Mushika – playing in their first tournament as a doubles team – reached the doubles semifinals of the ITA All-American Championships in Cary, North Carolina, to qualify for the NCAA Doubles Championships. The 16th-ranked Bears defeated Vanderbilt's 29th-ranked Celia-Belle Mohr and Sophia Webster 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals to advance. In the All-American semifinals, Mushika and Alsola fell to UCLA's 15th-ranked Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle 6-3, 6-2.

This marks Alsola's second appearance in NCAA doubles – she paired with Katja Wiersholm in 2023, with the Bears falling in the round of 32. Alsola also played in NCAA singles in 2022, falling in the first round.
 
Mushika and Alsola bring a 3-1 record into their opening round of 32 match in Waco against top-seeded and 15th-ranked Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle of UCLA at a time to be announced.
 
Wiersholm Advances To Waco In ITA Conference Masters
Cal senior Katja Wiersholm booked her ticket to Waco when she advanced to the singles semifinals in the ITA Conference Masters Championships on Nov. 8 in Rome, Georgia. The third-seeded Wiersholm, ranked 33rd, defeated UC San Diego's Nos. 5-8-seeded Julia Haynes 6-0, 6-2 in the singles quarterfinals to claim a spot in NCAA singles. The Cal veteran withdrew from the semifinals at ITA Conference Masters due to illness. This is Wiersholm's second trip to the NCAA Singles Championship, including last season, when she lost in the round of 64. She also competed in the NCAA Doubles Championship in 2023, with Wiersholm and Jessica Alsola falling in the round of 32.

Wiersholm has a 3-1 record ahead of her opening round of 64 match vs. Wichita State's Xin Tong Wang at a time to be announced Tuesday.
 
Mushika, Mi Complete Cal's Qualifying Group At ITA Sectionals
Mao Mushika earned her second trip to the NCAA individual championships when the 107th-ranked Bear defeated Pepperdine's Vivian Yang 6-1, 6-3 on Nov. 8 in the quarterfinals of the ITA West Sectional Championships in Los Angeles. On Nov. 9 at the ITA West Sectional Championships, Lan Mi became the third Bears to qualify for NCAA singles this season when she bested Pepperdine's Yang in a playoff match 6-2, 6-4, while Mushika to UCLA's Kate Fakih 7-6(5), 6-4 in the semifinals.
 
Mushika (7-3) faces Auburn's 82nd-ranked Angella Okutoyi on Tuesday in the NCAA singles first round at a time to be announced, while Mi (6-3) takes on South Carolina's Kaitlyn Carnicella in the first round at a time to be announced.
 
Last Time At Individual NCAAs
Cal qualified three Bears for NCAA singles and one pair for NCAA doubles in Stillwater, Oklahoma, last season, when the individual championships were held in the spring. Forty-third-ranked Valentina Ivanov, 44th-ranked Hannah Viller Moeller and 49th-ranked Katja Wiersholm competed in singles, with all three Bears falling in the opening round of 64. In doubles, Viller Moeller and Mushika likewise fell in the first round.
 
Decorated Alum Kusano Wallace Joins Staff
Cal alumna Stephanie Kusano Wallace – a former All-American who led the Golden Bears to the 2008 NCAA final – returned to Berkeley this season to bolster the Bears' staff as an assistant coach. With a decorated playing career at Cal from 2004-08, Kusano Wallace helped lead the program to the NCAA final four in 2007 and, as co-captain the following year, led the Bears to a national runner-up finish at the NCAA Championship. In that 2007-08 season, Kusano Wallace received All-Pac-10 Second-Team honors and was named a doubles All-American. As a two-time Pac-10 All-Academic Team member, she graduated from Cal in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in legal studies.
 
Most recently, Kusano Wallace was the Director of Tennis at Meadowood Napa Valley and a contributor to USTA Northern California's Player Development programs.
 
Brogan Inducted Into ITA Women's Hall Of Fame
For her many contributions to the sport of women's college tennis, former Cal head coach Jan Brogan – who led the program from 1978 to 2007 – was inducted into the ITA Women's Hall of Fame on Oct. 5 in Williamsburg, Virginia. Brogan retired from Cal with a record of 539-223 (.707 winning percentage), which at the time placed her fourth on the NCAA's all-time wins list. She led the Bears to 26 consecutive NCAA Championship appearances and 19 top-10 finishes from 1982.
 
Many of her proteges – including current Cal head coach Amanda Augustus and Christina Fusano Hinds, who introduced Brogan at the induction – attended the ceremony on the campus of William & Mary, where the ITA Women's Hall of Fame is located.
 
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