The 16th-ranked California women's tennis team (6-3, 3-1 ACC) remains on the road and resumes its ACC schedule this week when it plays Boston College and Syracuse.
 
At Boston College (8-6, 0-4 ACC)
2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET, Friday, March 20
Weymouth Club, Weymouth, Mass.
Live Scores https://calbea.rs/4bcKxHQ
 
At Syracuse (5-6, 1-3 ACC)
8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET, Sunday, March 22
Drumlins Country Club, Syracuse, N.Y.
Live Scores https://calbea.rs/476UQut
 
Last Time: Bears Best Gauchos, Fall To Waves
Cal won 4-3 at No. 40 UC Santa Barbara on Saturday before falling to No. 6 Pepperdine 4-1 on Sunday in Malibu. Against the Gauchos, the Cal pair of Berta Passola Folch and Sophie Hernandez clinched the doubles point with a 7-6(4) win over beat Lily Pradkin and My-Anh Holmes on Court 2. Mao Mushika later clinched the overall victory with a 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-5 win over Isabella Wong on Court 3.
 
In the Golden Bears' second match against Pepperdine in a week, freshman Johanne Svendsen defeated 10th-ranked Anastasiia Grechkina 6-3, 6-2 at Court-2 singles to remain unbeaten (4-0) in singles on the season, but the Bears dropped the rematch to the Waves 4-1 in Malibu.
 
Poll Position
Cal is ranked No. 16 by the ITA and No. 20 in the Universal Tennis Ratings (UTR) poll this week. The same four Bears who have been ranked much of the season are featured in this week's ITA singles rankings: No. 8 Berta Passola Folch (24-6), No. 16 Johanne Svendsen (5-0), No. 82 Mao Mushika (14-7) and No. 91 Naomi Xu (6-8). Two Cal duos are ranked in the ITA doubles poll: No. 65 Mushika and Svendsen (3-1) and No. 78 Mushika and Passola Folch (2-1).
 
Berta Passola Folch Named ACC Player Of The Week
Berta Passola Folch was named the ACC Player of the Week on Feb. 24 for leading the Golden Bears to conference-opening wins over Clemson and Georgia Tech in Berkeley. That marked Passola Folch's first ACC weekly honor and the first for the Bears this season. The Spaniard won twice in singles and doubles as the then-No. 12 Bears defeated the No. 21 Tigers 4-1 on Feb. 20 and No. 59 Yellow Jackets 4-0 on Feb. 21.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Cal is 1-0 in its brief series with Boston College, with the Bears beating the Eagles 7-0 in Berkeley last season.
• The Bears are 2-0 in its all-time series with Syracuse, including a 5-2 win over the Orange also in Berkeley last year.
• Berta Passola Folch capped an impressive fall season when the Cal senior reached the final of the NCAA Singles Championship in the first national individual tournament of her career and earned her first All-America honor along the way.
• The Spaniard qualified for NCAAs by advancing to the semifinals at the ITA West Sectional Championships in Seattle.
• Passola Folch has won 15 of her last 17 singles matches.
• Danish freshman Johanne Svendsen ­­­­— who made her Cal debut in January — boasts career-best WTA rankings of 361 in singles and 516 in doubles; she is currently ranked 607th in singles and 862nd in doubles.
• Svendsen has extensive experience playing for her country in the Billie Jean King Cup, competing in tournaments between 2022 and 2025.
• The first-year Bear has lost just once in her collegiate career so far, with records of 5-0 in singles and 4-1 in doubles.
• Sophomore Greta Greco Lucchina also qualified for NCAA singles at ITA West Sectionals, winning a playoff match in Seattle to join Passola Folch in Orlando.
• Overall, four Bears competed in NCAA singles in November, including Mao Mushika, a junior who advanced to the semifinals of the ITA Conference Masters Championships to book her spot at nationals.
• Earlier in the fall, Mushika partnered with Greco Lucchina to win the doubles title at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships in Berkeley to qualify for the NCAA Doubles Championship.
• The Japan native garnered doubles All-America honors last year when she paired with former Bear Jessica Alsola to earn the No. 4 ranking in the last ITA poll of the 2024-25 season.
• Also during this season's ITA regionals, sophomore Naomi Xu made a run to the singles final to claim her spot at NCAAs.
• The Bears are led by interim head coach Kris Kwinta, who is also in his fifth season at Cal as the Peter Wright Director of Men's Tennis.
• Former Cal All-Americans Stephanie Kusano Wallace and Jean Lozano are assistant coaches for the Bears.

 
Scouting the Eagles

• Boston College has won two straight matches — 4-0 over Stonehill on March 6 and 6-1 over Bowling Green last Sunday.
• Prior to playing Stonehill, the Eagles lost four consecutive ACC matches to Duke 5-0, North Carolina 4-0, Syracuse 5-0 and SMU 4-0.
• Nigel Bentley is in his 27th season year as head coach of Boston College.

 
Scouting the Orange

• Prior to hosting Cal on Sunday, Syracuse hosts Stanford on Friday in another conference match.
• Syracuse has lost three of its last four matches, with its only win in that span a 5-0 rout of Boston College on Feb. 28.
• Those three Orange losses were all to ACC opponents — 4-0 at UNC, 4-0 at Duke and 4-2 vs. SMU.
• The doubles pair of Nelly Knezkova and Anastasia Sysoeva is ranked 79th.
• Younes Limam is in his 12th year as Syracuse's head coach.

 
Next Time
Cal continues ACC road play at Louisville on March 27 and at Notre Dame on March 29.
 
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