Alsola Falls In Singles Semifinals At ITA Regionals

STANFORD, Calif. – California women's tennis freshman Jessica Alsola had a big impact in her first ITA Northwest Regional Championships, reaching the semifinals of both the singles and doubles draws at the Taube Family Tennis Center. The fourth-seeded Alsola won five matches to reach the singles semifinals, but she fell to Stanford's fifth-seeded Alexandra Yepifanova, 6-2, 7-5, on Tuesday.
 
Alsola paired with Cal junior Erin Richardson in doubles, with the Golden Bear duo falling to the Cardinal's Angelica Blake and Connie Ma in Monday's semis.
 
The Bears were attempting to qualify for the ITA National Fall Championships, and some Bears could still reach the Nov. 4-7 national tournament via at-large or ITA wild-card bids.
 
"We did a really good job at regionals, with most of the team playing," said Amanda Augustus, Cal's Interim Director of Tennis. "We put two brand new doubles teams together, with one making the semis and one [Hannah Viller Moeller and Makenna Thiel] making the round of 16, so that was really positive. Hopefully one of those teams still has the opportunity to get to fall nationals. That's promising."
 
Several Bears shone in singles. Besides Alsola, Julia Rosenqvist and Jada Bui reached the round of 16, and the trio of Richardson, Viller Moeller and Thiel advanced to the round of 32.
 
"We had a lot of really great singles wins," Augustus said. "I'm also pleased because this was not an easy tournament – we had to deal with rain, light issues and playing in multiple locations. The team really showed tremendous resiliency, and that's really important as we build into the spring season. You never know what the conditions are going to be any day, with weather, home or away.
 
"Jessica making the semifinals and beating two Stanford players [10th-seeded Valencia Xu and sixth-seeded Angelica Blake) back-to-back speaks a lot about how she's transitioning as a freshman to our team and at Cal. I'm hopeful that she gets selected to fall nationals in singles as well as doubles. She and the whole team did a great job of representing Cal here, and we're excited to see how we finish up the fall in the last couple of tournaments. And then we'll get ready for the spring, which is right around the corner."
 
Along with Bears possibly playing in fall nationals, a Cal contingent will compete in the ASU Thunderbird Invitational from Nov. 5-7 in Tempe, Arizona.