The California women's tennis team will be well represented at the NCAA individual championships with Mao Mushika, Berta Passola Folch, Greta Greco Lucchina and Naomi Xu heading to Orlando, Florida, for the postseason. All four will compete in the 64-player NCAA Singles Championship, while Mushika and Greco Lucchina will also play in the 32-team NCAA Doubles Championship.
 
Cal will be sending four Bears to individual NCAAs for the second consecutive season, with Mushika repeating as an entrant in singles and doubles. This marks the first individual postseason for Passola Folch, Greco Lucchina and Xu.
 
The NCAA Singles Championship starts Tuesday with three Bears – 113th-ranked Passola Folch takes on UCLA's 81st-ranked Mayu Crossley, 125th-ranked Greco Lucchina faces USC's Jana Hossam, and Xu plays Appalachian State's fourth-seeded and 106th-ranked Savannah Dada-Mascoll – slated to start their opening round of 64 matches at 10:30 a.m. PT. Mushika plays her opener against Charlotte's Ni Xi at 11 a.m. PT. Greco Lucchina and Mushika face Vanderbilt's fourth-seeded and 12th-ranked Sophia Webster and Celia-Belle Mohr on Wednesday in the NCAA Doubles Championship opening round of 32 at a time to be announced.
 
Both tournaments conclude Sunday.
 
NCAA Individual Championships
When: Tuesday-Sunday
Where: USTA National Campus, Orlando, Fla.
Draws: Singles, Doubles
Watch: Cracked Racquets / ESPN+
Live Scores
 
Scouting the Bears

• Mao Mushika (9-4 singles; 5-0 doubles with Greta Greco Lucchina) – An Ichinomiya, Japan, native, the junior is ranked 17th in the ITA preseason singles poll; she partnered with Greta Greco Lucchina to go 5-0 en route to winning the doubles title at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships and qualify for NCAA doubles; this marks Mushika's third straight time appearance in NCAA doubles, after partnering with Hannah Viller Moeller as a freshman and Jessica Alsola as a sophomore; at the ITA Conference Masters Championships, Mushika defeated Pepperdine's fifth-seeded and 97th-ranked Alexia Harmon in the 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals to qualify for NCAA singles for the second straight year; Mushika garnered doubles All-America honors after she and Alsola ended last season ranked No. 4 in the ITA poll; Mushika and Greco Lucchina are not ranked, but the tandem of Mushika and Cal freshman Laura Cilekova is ranked 13th
• Greta Greco Lucchina (11-3 singles; 5-0 doubles with Mao Mushika) – A product of Vicenza, Italy, the sophomore is ranked 125th in singles and has had a busy fall competing in the ITA All-American Championships, Cal Fall Invitational, ITA Northwest Regional Championships, Dennis Rizza Intercollegiate Classic and ITA West Sectional Championships; at sectionals, Greco Lucchina defeated Stanford's 58th-ranked Caroline Driscoll 6-1, 6-4 in a playoff match to earn her spot at NCAA singles; Greco Lucchina is unbeaten in doubles overall at 9-0 including a 4-0 record with Mille Johanna Moerk, with the duo compiling that record when they won the top-flight doubles title at the Cal Fall Invitational; Greco Lucchina also captured the top-flight singles title at the Bears' annual tournament
• Berta Passola Folch (11-3 singles) – The senior – who hails from Barcelona, Spain, and is ranked 113th in singles – qualified for the NCAA Singles Championship for the first time this season when she beat USC's fourth-seeded Krisha Mahendran 6-2, 7-6(4) in the quarterfinals at the ITA West Sectional Championships; Passola Folch also made a strong run to reach the semifinals of the ITA Northwest Regional Championships, going 4-1 in Berkeley including a 6-1, 7-6(2) victory over Stanford's second-seeded and 58th-ranked Caroline Driscoll in the quarterfinals
• Naomi Xu (6-2 singles) – The sophomore from Montreal, Canada, had impressive wins at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships including a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Stanford's fourth-seeded and 83rd-ranked Monika Ekstrand in the round of 32; a 6-4, 6-3 result over Washington State's ninth-seeded Maxine Murphy in the round of 16; a 6-3, 6-0 win over Washington's sixth-seeded and 96th-ranked Erika Matsuda in the quarterfinals; and – in the win that clinched her berth at NCAAs – a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over top-seeded and 17th-ranked teammate Mao Mushika in the semifinals
• The record for the most total Bears competing in NCAA singles and doubles is six and the record for most Cal entrants in the individual postseason is also six (4 in singles, 2 in doubles), both of which Cal achieved in 2015
• The Bears have won five NCAA doubles championships (Amanda Augustus/Amy Jensen 1998 & 1999, Jensen/Claire Curran 2000, Raquel Kops-Jones/Christina Fusano 2003, Mari Andersson/Jana Juricova 2009) and two NCAA singles titles (Susie Babos 2006, Jana Juricova 2011)
• Cal is led by interim head coach Kris Kwinta – who is also the Peter Wright Director of Men's Tennis – along with assistant coaches and Cal women's tennis alumnae Stephanie Kusano Wallace and Jean Lozano

 
Review Of 2024 NCAA Individual Championships
Four Bears – Mao Mushika, Katja Wiersholm, Lan Mi and Jessica Alsola – competed in the NCAA individual championships last season in Waco, Texas. Wiersholm reached the singles round of 16 to earn All-America honors, while Mi and Mushika advanced to the singles round of 32 and the duo of Alsola and Mushika reached the doubles round of 32.
 
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