The California women's tennis team sends Golden Bears to compete in the ITA West Sectional Championships and ITA Conference Masters Championships starting Thursday, with qualification to the NCAA individual championships on the line, while five Bears travel to Arizona State for the Thunderbird Invitational.
 
Katja Wiersholm plays at conference masters in Rome, Georgia; Jessica Alsola, Lan Mi, Mao Mushika and Berta Passola Folch compete at sectionals in Los Angeles; and Cami Brown, Sophie Hernandez, Tiziana-Marie Schomburg, Makenna Thiel and Naomi Xu play in Tempe. The latter tournament runs from Friday through Sunday.
 
All five Bears competing in the major ITA tournaments are vying to qualify for the NCAA Singles Championship, while Mi and Passola Folch are attempting to join Alsola and Mushika at the NCAA Doubles Championship. Both postseason tournaments take place later this month at Baylor. Alsola and Mushika qualified for NCAA doubles by reaching the semifinals at the ITA All-American Championships in September.
 
From sectionals, six players (the four semifinalists plus two quarterfinal playoff winners) will qualify for NCAA singles, while the top three doubles teams (champion, runner-up and third-place winner) will advance to NCAAs. The four singles semifinalists at conference masters advance to NCAA singles.
 
Here are more details for the three tournaments:
 
ITA West Sectional Championships
When: Nov. 7-10
Where: Marks Tennis Stadium, Los Angeles, Calif.
Watch: PlaySight
Scores: Draws
ITA Tournament Site
 
ITA Conference Masters Championships
When: Nov. 7-10
Where: Rome Tennis Center, Rome, Ga.
Watch: Cracked Racquets Live Stream, PlaySight
Scores: iOnCourt, Draws
ITA Tournament Site
 
Thunderbird Invitational
When: Nov. 8-10
Where: Whiteman Tennis Center, Tempe, Ariz.
ITA Tournament 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.
 
Young Bears Take Titles At Cal Fall Invite
Cal closed out its annual fall tournament in style, capturing top-flight titles in singles and doubles on the last day of the Cal Fall Invitational on Sept. 29. Three of the program's youngest players were triumphant, with sophomore Tiziana-Marie Schomburg and freshman Naomi Xu taking the doubles title and freshman Sophie Hernandez winning the singles crown at the Hellman Tennis Complex.
 
The top-seeded Cal duo defeated the second-seeded Iman Khan and Olivia Rook of Saint Mary's 8-5 in the doubles final, while – in the last match of the three-day tournament – Hernandez prevailed 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 over Sacramento State's Madelyn Ferreros in the singles final.
 
The top-flight singles semifinals featured Hernandez taking on the top-seeded Schomburg and the third-seeded Xu playing Ferreros. Hernandez defeated Schomburg 6-4, 6-3, and, in a taut battle on court two, Xu fell to Ferreros 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 to set up the final. Meanwhile in the gold-flight singles semifinals, Cal graduate student Cami Brown fell to Nevada's Petra Janigova 6-0, 6-2.
 
Passola Folch Shines At ITA Regionals In Berkeley
Berta Passola Folch advanced to the quarterfinals in singles and – with Makenna Thiel – doubles at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships hosted by Cal in October.
 
Ranked 106th, the junior didn't lose a set in the first three singles rounds before falling to Washington's 60th-ranked and fourth-seeded Reece Carter 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. Passola Folch and Thiel likewise cruised through the first three rounds of doubles, until they dropped an 8-2 result to the Huskies' top-seeded Carter and Alexia Jacobs in the quarters.
 
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.
 
Next Time
Jessica Alsola, Mao Mushika and other Bears who qualify will compete in the NCAA individual championships from Nov. 19-24 at Baylor.
 
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