# #

Cal Plays in Northwest Regional at Stanford

by calbears.com
Oct 8, 2014

BERKELEY – With berths to the fall’s major tournament on the line, California will play in the USTA/ITA Northwest Regional Championships in Stanford, Calif. The tournament – which includes singles and doubles draws – will begin on Friday at 8:30 a.m. and conclude with finals on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium.

In the USTA/ITA Division I Regional Championships, NCAA Division I men and women face off with singles and doubles champions from each of the twelve regions advancing into the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, held November 6-9 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Along with Cal and host Stanford, the Northwest Regional includes players from the following schools: Cal Poly, Eastern Washington, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon, Pacific, Portland, Portland State, Sacramento State, Saint Mary's, San Francisco, San Jose State, Santa Clara, Seattle, UC Davis, Washington and Washington State.

Cal junior Lynn Chi – the 2014 NCAA runner-up – is the top singles seed at the regional. In fact, five of the top nine – and four of the top six – singles seeds are comprised of Golden Bears: 1. Lynn Chi (ranked No. 8). 3. Zsofi Susanyi (No. 16, senior). 5. Maegan Manasse (No. 43, sophomore). 6. Denise Starr (No. 25, sophomore). 9. Klara Fabikova (No. 60, junior).

Three Cal doubles teams earned seeds: No. 1 Manasse/Starr, No. 3 Fabikova/Susanyi and No. 7 Chi/freshman Karla Popovic.

There are 12 NCAA Division I regional championships taking place around the country, with regionals also occurring at the Division II, Division III, NAIA and junior college levels.

For a full look at the 2014 USTA/ITA Regional Championships schedule, please visit the ITA websitehere. The results page is here.

Scouting the Bears

  • Five Bears played in the recent Riviera/ITA All-American Championships
  • Maegan Manasse reached the farthest of any Bear in All-American singles, falling in the quarterfinals; she upset North Carolina’s top-seeded/top-ranked Jamie Loeb in the round of 32
  • Denise Starr and Manasse earned a main draw doubles berth at the All-American; they fell in the round of 16
  • Manasse won the blue singles title – beating Starr, 6-4, 6-4 –at the Cal Nike Fall Invitational on Sept. 28
  • The doubles team of Starr and Manasse defeated Zsofi Susanyi and Lynn Chi, 8-4, in the blue doubles final at the Cal Nike Invitational
  • Chi reached the All-American consolation singles semifinals
  • Last season, Chi earned All-America honors, All-Pac-12 second-team kudos and a final, No. 11 ITA ranking at the end of her sophomore campaign
  • Chi was also a nominee for the Honda Sports Award for Tennis last spring
  • Susanyi and Klara Fabikova reached the All-American singles round of 16
  • Susanyi, who ended last year with a No. 21 final ranking, was the first Cal freshman to ever reach the NCAA singles semifinals, a feat she accomplished in the 2012 tournament
  • Fabikova finished last season with a No. 86 final ranking after posting a 34-10 singles record
  • Cal alumna Amanda Augustus (class of 1999) – the 2014 Pac-12 Coach of the Year – is in her eighth season as head coach of the Bears
  • First-year assistant coach Zach Warren, who was previously a UNLV men’s tennis assistant coach, served as the volunteer assistant coach for the Cal men’s team during the 2012-13 season

At the 2013 Northwest Regional

Cal’s Zsofi Susanyi was poised to reach the final in both the singles and doubles main draws of the 2013 USTA/ITA Northwest Regional Championships on Oct. 21, but it wasn’t to be, as the junior lost in the semifinals of both tournaments at Stanford.

First, Susanyi paired with Denise Starr to face the Stanford’s 17th-ranked team of Kristie Ahn and Carol Zhao in the morning. The Golden Bears fell, 8-2, in the semifinal.

In the afternoon, Susanyi – the fourth-ranked singles player in the nation – battled Ahn – ranked 13th – again in the singles semis. Susanyi lost, 6-0, 6-1.

Lynn Chi, a sophomore ranked 44th in the nation in singles, pushed Ahn in the quarterfinals one day earlier before falling, 7-6(3), 6-4.

Earlier in the singles tournament, in the round of 16, the 13th-seeded Starr upset Stanford’s eighth-ranked and fourth-seeded Krista Hardebeck, 6-1, 6-3.

Next Time

The Bears play in the Saint Mary’s Invitational from Oct. 24-26 in Moraga, Calif.

Related News & Videos