The California women's tennis team will send five Golden Bears to compete in the ITA All-American Championships in the season-opening national tournament that starts Saturday and concludes Sept. 28 in Cary, North Carolina. Mao Mushika, Berta Passola Folch, Naomi Xu, Greta Greco Lucchina and Laura Cilekova will compete in singles and the duo of Mushika and Cilekova will play in doubles at Cary Tennis Park, which will host the women's event for the fourth consecutive year.
 
Players will vie for singles and doubles titles at the ITA All-American Championships as well as qualification for the NCAA Singles Championship and NCAA Doubles Championship in November. Ten singles players from All-Americans (eight main draw quarterfinalists and two feed-in consolation finalists) will advance to NCAA singles, while four pairs (four main draw semifinalists) will qualify for NCAA doubles. The USTA National Campus will host the NCAA individual championships from Nov. 18-23 in Orlando, Florida.
 
At All-Americans, Mushika, a junior, earned a spot in the singles main draw that starts next Wednesday, the same day she and Cilekova, a freshman, start main draw doubles. Passola Folch – Cal's lone senior – competes in qualifying singles beginning Monday, while Cilekova and sophomores Xu and Greco Lucchina open pre-qualifying singles Saturday.
 
Here are more tournament details:
 
ITA All-American Championships
When: Sept. 20-28
Where: Cary Tennis Park, Cary, N.C.
Watch: Live Streaming – PlaySight; Cracked Racquets (main draw only)
Draws & Results: ITA Site
Live Stats: ScoreBuzzer
ITA Tournament Central
 
Poll Position
Three Bears are ranked in the ITA preseason singles poll in No. 17 Mushika, No. 113 Berta Passola Folch and No. 125 Greta Greco Lucchina. Mushika and Cilekova sit at No. 13 in the preseason doubles rankings. To end last season, Mushika ranked 32nd in singles, while the doubles pair of Mushika and Jessica Alsola ranked fourth and the duo of Mushika and Katja Wiersholm ranked 44th.
 
2024-25 In Review
Cal reached the NCAA Super Regional for the second straight year, with the Bears shutting out Sacramento State and Washington in a pair of 4-0 wins in the first two rounds of the NCAA Championship in Seattle. Senior Lan Mi clinched both victories with wins at court-three singles. The Golden Bears ultimately lost at top-ranked Georgia 4-0 in the super regional to end their season with a 15-9 record that included a 9-3 conference mark in their first season in the ACC.
 
In their first appearance in the ACC Championship, the Bears topped Louisville 4-1 in the first round with Naomi Xu clinching the win. They faced a familiar opponent in the quarterfinals in Virginia. Cal defeated the Cavaliers 4-1 in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier in the season. But the Bears fell 4-0 in the rematch.
 
Among the highlights of the 2024-25 season were a 10-match winning streak that included an 8-0 start in the ACC, the aforementioned win at then-No. 2 Virginia, a 4-3 victory in the Big Slam at No. 27 Stanford, qualifying four Bears (Jessica Alsola, Lan Mi, Mao Mushika and Katja Wiersholm) for the NCAA individual championships, and Wiersholm earning singles All-America honors by reaching the NCAA round of 16.
 
By virtue of their final No. 4 ranking last season, Mushika and Alsola earned doubles All-America honors. The duo was also named to the All-ACC Second Team in doubles, while Mushika was named to the All-ACC Second Team in singles and Alsola was tabbed a singles All-ACC Third-Team honoree.
 
Last Time At ITA All-Americans
Playing in their first tournament together as a doubles pair, Mao Mushika and Jessica Alsola advanced to the singles semifinals of the 2024 ITA All-American Championships to qualify for the NCAA Doubles Championships. The 16th-ranked Alsola and Mushika defeated Vanderbilt's 29th-ranked Celia-Belle Mohr and Sophia Webster 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals to advance. The tandem ended its run in Cary when it fell in the semifinals to UCLA's 15th-ranked Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle 6-3, 6-2.
 
Next Time
Cal hosts its annual Cal Fall Invitational from Sept. 26-28, with Bears not competing at ITA All-Americans playing for singles and doubles titles in Berkeley at the Hellman Tennis Complex and Channing Tennis Courts.
 
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