# #

Cal Faces Georgia In NCAA Super Regional

by calbears.com
May 8, 2024
Jessica Alsola and the Bears hope to extend their season when they play the Bulldogs in Athens.

BERKELEY – The 10th-seeded and 10th-ranked California women's tennis team takes on seventh-seeded and seventh-ranked Georgia on Friday in the NCAA Super Regional in Athens, Georgia. The winner advances to the quarterfinal round in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where Oklahoma State will host the remainder of the NCAA Championship as well as the NCAA individual championships.
 
The super regional represents the third round – or round of 16 – of the NCAA Championship.
 
Match Details
 
NCAA Super Regional
 
[10] No. 10 Cal (20-6) at [7[ No. 7 Georgia (22-4)
When: Friday, May 10, 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET
Where: Dan Magill Tennis Complex, Athens, Ga.
Follow: Livestream / Live Scores
 
The schedule for the rest of the postseason in Stillwater is the following:
 
NCAA Championship
May 17, Quarterfinals
May 18, Semifinals
May 19, Final
 
NCAA Singles Championship and NCAA Doubles Championship
May 20-25
 
For more information, please visit the NCAA Championship site.
 
Last Time: Cal Shuts Out Hornets, Tigers
Cal advanced to super regionals after shutting out Sacramento State 4-0 in the NCAA first round and Auburn 4-0 in the second round at the Hellman Tennis Complex last week in Berkeley. Senior Valentina Ivanov clinched both wins in the last two home matches of her career.
 
Against the Hornets last Friday, Ivanov also did well in doubles, pairing with Berta Passola Folch to defeat Weronika Ejsmont and Best Lee 6-1 to start the first-round clash. Jessica Alsola and Lan Mi followed with a 6-4 win over Mayya Gorbunova and Lou Baudouin to clinch the doubles point for the Bears. Cal increased the pressure in singles, taking all six first sets. Passola Folch gave Cal a 2-0 lead when she bested Lee 6-0, 6-2 on court five, and the 44th-ranked Hannah Viller Moeller quickly followed with a 6-0, 6-0 trouncing of Baudouin on court two to make the score 3-0. Ivanov, ranked 43rd, sent the Hornets packing when she topped Gorbunova 6-0, 6-4 on court one.

Rain delayed the start of the Cal-Auburn match until 5 p.m. PT last Saturday. When action finally commenced, the Tigers' top doubles team got the better of the Bears' top tandem, as Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika – ranked 18th – lost to the 15th-ranked DJ Bennett and Ariana Arseneault 6-0 on court one. Each of the other two Cal pairs trailed 5-4 on their respective courts but managed to battle back. On court three, Ivanov and Passola Folch won the next three games to claim a 7-5 win over Carolyn Ansari and Ava Esposito Cogan. The Bears clinched the doubles point on court two, where the 81st-ranked Alsola and Katja Wiersholm edged the 74th-ranked Adeline Flach and Angella Okutoyi 7-6(2).
 
Cal junior Lan Mi posted her 40th win of the season at court-six singles – beating Cogan 6-4, 6-1 – to give the Bears a 2-0 lead, and Passola Folch made the lead 3-0 when she bested Flach 6-3, 6-0 on court five. Ivanov notched a big win in clinching under the lights at Hellman, with the 43rd-ranked Bear upsetting the ninth-ranked Ansari 6-4, 6-1 to end the night.
 
4 Bears Earn NCAA Individual Invites
When they're finished with their team commitments in the NCAA Championship, four Bears will focus on the NCAA individual tournaments at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater. Hannah Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika were chosen for the NCAA Doubles Championship while Viller Moeller, Valentina Ivanov and Katja Wiersholm were named to the NCAA Singles Championship, the NCAA announced April 30.
 
This marks the first time each of the Bears will compete in her respective postseason tournament. Ivanov and Wiersholm previously played in the NCAA Doubles Championship, with Ivanov partnering with Haley Giavara in 2021 and Wiersholm teaming with Jessica Alsola in 2023.
 
Competing in the doubles field of 32, Mushika, a freshman, and Viller Moeller, a senior, have earned a No. 18 ranking and compiled a 25-12 record. The pair had a strong start to the season, winning the top doubles title in the Cal Fall Invitational and capturing the crown 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.
 
Viller Moeller joins Ivanov and Wiersholm in the field of 64 in NCAA singles. The Copenhagen, Denmark, native is ranked 44th with a 23-21 record in her final season at Cal. In the fall, Viller Moeller won the singles title in the ITA Northwest Regional Championships and reached the singles quarterfinals of the ITA National Fall Championships. At the 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.
 
Ivanov improved her singles record to 18-9 with her clinching wins against Sac State and Auburn in the postseason. Currently ranked 43rd in singles, the Sydney, Australia, product 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 she beat 25th-ranked Kimmi Hance, 6-0, 6-2, in Cal's 4-2 triumph over top-seeded UCLA in the Pac-12 Championship semifinals. In doubles, Ivanov boasts a 21-7 record, including a 16-5 mark with Jessica Alsola.
 
Ranked 44th, 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. 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 20-14 doubles record.
 
6 Bears Named All-Pac-12
Six Bears earned All-Pac-12 distinction for 2023-24, the conference announced last Friday ahead of the first-round win over Sac State. Jessica Alsola and Lan Mi joined the four selected to the NCAA individual championships – Hannah Viller Moeller, Valentina Ivanov, Katja Wiersholm and Mao Mushika – in collecting conference accolades. Seniors Ivanov and Viller Moeller garnered berths on the first team, juniors Alsola and Katja Wiersholm claimed second-team spots, and newcomers Mi, a junior, and Mushika, a freshman, claimed honorable mention.
 
Alsola has a 24-17 record and is ranked 81st in singles. She also has a 29-9 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 (8-3). 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 Fresno product had a good 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, Alsola 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. This marks Alsola's second All-Pac-12 second-team honor. She was also named to the first team last season.
 
Mi hit a big mark when she captured her 40th singles win of the season against Auburn. A transfer from Cornell who calls Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, home, Mi only lost twice in singles in the fall and put together a 16-match singles win streak in the middle of the season. She is currently on a seven-match win streak. 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 is 11-11 overall. The tandem of Mi and Alsola played together for the first time in the NCAA opener and clinched the doubles point against the Hornets.
 
Last Time Vs. Georgia
Cal lost to the Bulldogs 4-2 when they last met in the semifinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in 2015. The Bears got singles wins from Klara Fabikova – who defeated Ellen Perez 6-2, 6-2 – and Denise Starr – who beat Silvia Garcia 6-3, 7-5. But the Bulldogs clinched the match when Hannah King beat Cal's 30th-ranked Karla Popovic 7-5, 6-3.
 
The Bears have a 7-12 record in the all-time series with Georgia.
 
Poll Position
In the latest ITA polls from May 2, Cal is ranked 10th as a team. The Bears have eight individual rankings, with Jessica Alsola represented in four of them. In doubles the duo of Hannah Viller Moeller and Mao Mushika (25-12) is ranked 18th, Alsola and Valentina Ivanov (16-5) are ranked 51st, Alsola and Berta Passola Folch (3-1) are ranked 67th, and Alsola and Katja Wiersholm (8-3) are ranked 81st. In singles, Ivanov (18-9) is 43rd, Viller Moeller (23-21) sits at No. 44, Wiersholm (25-6) is ranked 49th and Alsola (24-17) is ranked 81st.
 
Scouting the Bears

  • Cal last advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals the previous time they were in Oklahoma, as the top-seeded Bears got as far the semifinals in 2016 when Tulsa hosted the remainder of the postseason
  • The program had its best NCAA Championship campaigns in 2008 and 2009, the first two seasons under head coach Amanda Augustus, who led the Bears to runner-up finishes both years
  • The current Bears have a 7-1 road record
  • Mao Mushika (27-8) ranks second on the team in singles wins behind Lan Mi (40)
  • Mushika has clinched a 4-3 thriller over No. 3 Pepperdine, a 6-1 rout of Hawaii, a 4-1 win over No. 21 Washington at national indoors and a 5-2 win over No. 41 Arizona in the Pac-12 opener
  • Mi – who leads Cal with 40 singles wins - won the top-flight singles crown at the Saint Mary's Fall Invitational in October
  • Along with Valentina Ivanov's four clinching wins, Katja Wiersholm's four, Mushika's four, Mi's three, Jessica Alsola's three and Hannah Viller Moeller's one, Cal's other clinching win came courtesy of Berta Passola Folch against Arizona State
  • A product of Barcelona, Spain, Passola Folch – who's won 10 of her last 11 singles matches – has a 23-7 singles record including wins in the first two rounds of the NCAA Championship
  • Cal is one of nine Pac-12 teams ranked in the ITA team poll
  • This season marks Cal's last in the Pac-12 Conference, as the Bears will compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) beginning next year
  • Cal Athletics Hall of Famer and two-time NCAA doubles champion Amanda Augustus – the 2021 Pac-12 Coach of the Year and five-time ITA Northwest Region Coach of the Year – is in her 17th year as head coach at her alma mater
  • Assistant coach and former Cal men's tennis player Sean Hill is in his second year on the Cal staff

 Scouting the Bulldogs

  • In the NCAA regional in Athens, Georgia defeated Alabama State 4-0 in the first round and No. 20 Florida State 4-1 in the second round
  • The Bulldogs beat No. 12 Texas A&M 4-1 on April 21 in the SEC Tournament final to win their 10th SEC championship
  • Georgia is riding a nine-match win streak into the super regional
  • The Bulldogs last lost on March 31 at Auburn – Cal's most recent opponent – 4-3
  • Georgia has a 10-0 home record
  • Five Bulldogs are ranked in singles – No. 16 Dasha Vidmanova, No. 41 Alexandra Vecic, No. 65 Mell Reasco, No. 70 Anastasiia Lopata and No. 87 Mai Nirundorn
  • Vidanova and Aysegul Mert are ranked 14th in doubles while Nirundorn and Guillermina Grant are ranked 55th
  • Six Bulldogs were named to All-SEC Teams – Vidmanova (first team); Vecic, Reasco, Lopata and Grant (second team); and Mert (all-freshman team)
  • Drake Bernstein - the SEC Coach of the Year – is in his first season as Georgia's head coach
  • Bernstein was Georgia's associate head coach in 2023, when the Bulldogs reached the NCAA semifinals
  • Georgia has won the NCAA championship twice (1995, 2000) and finished runner-up twice (1987, 2019)

Stay Posted
For further coverage of the Bears, follow them on Twitter (@CalWomensTennis), Instagram (@CalWomensTennis) and Facebook (/CalWomensTennis/).

 

Related News & Videos