6 Bears Claim All-Pac-12 Honors

Six members of the California women's tennis team earned All-Pac-12 distinction for the 2023-24 season, the conference announced Friday ahead of the Golden Bears' NCAA Championship opener in Berkeley. Seniors Valentina Ivanov and Hannah Viller Moeller garnered berths on the first team, juniors Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm claimed second-team spots, and newcomers Lan Mi and Mao Mushika collected honorable mention.
 
All six played big roles in helping Cal earn the No. 10 seed in the NCAA Championship and the No. 10 ranking in the latest ITA poll.
 
Ivanov and Viller Moeller – along with senior Cami Brown – are the last Bears left from the 2021 team that captured the Pac-12 championship. From Sydney, Australia, Ivanov began her final collegiate season in the spring, posting records of 17-9 in singles and 20-7 in doubles and earning current rankings of 43rd in singles and, with Jessica Alsola, 51st in doubles. Ivanov was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week on March 26 for her part in the Bears' wins over Hawaii, Colorado and Utah. The senior won all three of her singles matches – clinching the 6-1 thumping of the Buffaloes – and paired with Alsola to capture all three of their doubles matches. In early April, Ivanov competed for New Zealand in the Billie Jean King Cup, and on April 26 she beat 25th-ranked Kimmi Hance, 6-0, 6-2, in Cal's 4-2 triumph over UCLA in the Pac-12 Championship semifinals. She has clinched three Cal victories, including the 4-0 win over Sacramento State in the NCAA first round Friday.
 
Viller Moeller will join Ivanov and Wiersholm in the NCAA Singles Championship after Cal's run in the team tournament ends. From Copenhagen, Denmark, Viller Moeller has produced her best season at Cal. She is ranked 44th in singles with a 23-21 record after ranking as high as No. 12 in the fall, when she won the singles title in the ITA Northwest Regional Championships and reached the singles quarterfinals of the ITA National Fall Championships. At last week's Pac-12 Championship, she defeated Chelsea Fontenel, 6-3, 6-3, on court one to clinch 10th-ranked Cal's 5-0 win over 27th-ranked Arizona State in the quarterfinals. The veteran has paired with Mushika, a freshman, to compile a 25-11 doubles record, claim a No. 18 ranking and earn an at-large berth in the NCAA Doubles Championship.
 
Ranked 49th in singles, Wiersholm has a 25-6 record and has clinched four Cal wins this season, including a 5-2 result at Washington, the 4-0 season-opening win over Illinois, a 6-1 thrashing of Utah and a 4-3 win over UCLA. She's won five of her last six singles matches heading into the NCAA Championship. Early in the season, the junior from Kirkland, Washington, won the top-flight singles title at the Cal Fall Invitational and advanced to the quarterfinals at ITA regionals. Wiersholm also has a 19-14 doubles record including a 7-3 mark with Alsola. That partnership has paid dividends before for Cal – the tandem won the doubles crown at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships last season.
 
Alsola has a 24-17 record and is ranked 81st in singles. Meanwhile she has a 28-9 record in doubles and is ranked with three different doubles partners – No. 51 with Ivanov (16-5), No. 67 with Berta Passola Folch (3-1) and No. 81 with Wiersholm (7-3). Alsola partnered with Mi for the first time in Friday's NCAA first-round win over Sacramento State, with the duo clinching the doubles point. The junior from Fresno had a strong start to the season when she reached the singles quarterfinals of the ITA All-American Championships in October. She later competed at the ITA National Fall Championships in November, when she advanced to the consolation singles final. In the spring, she clinched three Cal victories - a pair of 6-1 conference wins over Oregon and Washington State along with a big 4-2 win over eighth-ranked UCLA in the Pac-12 Championship semifinals.
 
With a 27-8 record – including 15-5 in dual matches – Mushika ranks second in singles wins behind Mi's 39. The Ichinomiya, Japan, native made her mark early in the season in doubles, pairing with Viller Moeller to capture the top doubles title in the Cal Fall Invitational and win the title in the ITA Northwest Regional Championships. The two Bears reached the round of 16 in the ITA National Fall Championships, with their loss at nationals representing their lone setback in the fall, when they finished 11-1. In the spring, Mushika has clinched four Cal wins including a big 4-3 triumph over No. 3 Pepperdine on April 6 in Berkeley. In that match, Mushika bested the 90th-ranked Anna Campana 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-4.
 
A junior transfer from Cornell, Mi is 39-5 in singles and 11-11 in doubles. The Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, product has a strong debut as a Bear, only losing twice in singles in the fall and putting together a 16-match singles win streak in the middle of the season. She is currently on a six-match win streak in singles. Mi has clinched three Cal wins – a 5-2 result at San Diego State, a 6-1 rout of UCSB and, in the ITA Kickoff Weekend, a 4-3 win over host and No. 16 Oklahoma that qualified the Bears for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. While she has played sparingly in doubles, Mi holds a 9-4 record when paired with Tiziana-Marie Schomburg and won her first match of the season partnered with Alsola on Friday against the Hornets.
 
The six Bears and their teammates close out the NCAA's Berkeley regional when they host 17th-ranked Auburn in a second-round match at noon PT on Saturday at the Hellman Tennis Complex.
 
Stay Posted
For further coverage of the Bears, follow them on Twitter (@CalWomensTennis), Instagram (@CalWomensTennis) and Facebook (/CalWomensTennis/).