WACO, Texas – California won all four of its matches on Thursday at the NCAA Championships, with both Golden Bears winning in singles and both Cal pairs winning in doubles at Baylor’s Hurd Tennis Center.
Zsofi Susanyi added a fifth All-America honor to her collection when the senior advanced to Friday’s singles round of 16, while sophomore
Maegan Manasse also triumphed in Thursday’s round of 32. Later in the day, the seventh-ranked team of Manasse and sophomore
Denise Starr along with the fifth-ranked duo of Susanyi and junior
Klara Fabikova triumphed on the first day of the NCAA Doubles Championship.
Ranked 43rd in singles, Susanyi upset the 10th-ranked and Nos. 9-16-seeded Julia Jones of Mississippi, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4. The fourth-ranked and fourth-seeded Manasse also won in three sets against Alabama’s 34th-ranked Erin Routliffe, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.
By virtue of reaching the round of 16 – for the third time in her career – Susanyi earned All-America status. The Cal veteran reached the round of 16 in 2013 and advanced to the semifinals as a freshman in 2012. She is now a three-time All-American in singles and a two-time All-American in doubles.
NCAA doubles opened with the round of 32, and the Nos. 5-8-seeded duo of Manasse and Starr quickly bested Notre Dame’s 29th-ranked Quinn Gleason/Monica Robinson, 6-2, 6-1.
Also seeded Nos. 5-8 and playing the next court over to their teammates at Baylor’s grandstand courts, Susanyi and Fabikova battled Georgia Tech’s 21st-ranked Paige Hourigan and Kendal Woodard. The Bears trailed 6-2, 5-1, before they won four straight games to tie the second set at 5-5. Fabikova and Susanyi eventually won the second-set tiebreaker, 10-8, to take the set 7-6 and force a third set. The Bears completed their comeback win, 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-3.
“It was a really great day for the Bears,” Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. “We were successful in all four of our matches. The singles wins were particularly noteworthy – they both fought back from being a set down, and they both fought hard. Later in doubles, Maegan and Denise’s match was much more straightforward than the other one. To see Klara and Zsofi hang tough and grind away in that match was great.”
In Susanyi and Fabikova’s match, the Bears bolted out to a 6-0 lead in the second-set tiebreaker, before Hourigan and Woodard stormed back to take a 7-6 lead. The Bears were one point away then – and also at 8-7 – from losing the match, but they rebounded yet again.
“That’s why they’re a top-10 team in the country,” Augustus said. “They know how to work through situations like that. They just rushed a little bit at that point in the match. I was happy to see them reset and get it done pretty convincingly in the third set.”
Thursday marked Cal’s return to NCAA doubles after no Bears competed in that tournament in the previous two years.
“We’ve historically been very strong in the doubles,” said Augustus, who won two NCAA doubles championships with Amy Jensen when they played for Cal. “That’s very important in our program. We work hard on it. Now we have two experienced teams who had great seasons, and both have great opportunities in the postseason.”
On Friday in singles, Susanyi faces Stanford’s second-seeded and second-ranked Carol Zhao at 10 a.m. CT, and Manasse plays Florida’s 13th-ranked and Nos. 9-16-seeded Kristin Kuhlman also at 10 a.m. CT. In the doubles round of 16, Fabikova and Susanyi take on Kentucky’s 25th-ranked Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi, with that match’s time TBA. Starr and Manasse will next face the winner of the round of 32 match between Tennessee’s 22nd-ranked Joanna Henderson and Caitlyn Williams and Stanford’s 10th-ranked Caroline Doyle and Ellen Tsay.
NCAA Championships
May 21, 2015, in Waco, Texas
Hurd Tennis Center
NCAA Singles Championship – Round of 32
Cal Results
No. 43 Zsofi Susanyi (Cal) def. [9-16] No. 10 Julia Jones (Mississippi) – 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
[4] No. 4 Maegan Manasse (Cal) def. No. 34 Erin Routliffe (Alabama) – 4-6, 6-0, 6-1
NCAA Doubles Championship – Round of 32
Cal Results
[5-8] No. 7 Maegan Manasse/Denise Starr (Cal) def. No. 29 Quinn Gleason/Monica Robinson (Notre Dame) – 6-2, 6-1
[5-8] No. 5 Klara Fabikova/Zsofi Susanyi (Cal) def. No. 21 Paige Hourigan/Kendal Woodard (Georgia Tech) – 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-3
