No. 14 Cal Welcomes No. 17 USC To Hellman

BERKELEY – The 14th-ranked California women's tennis team continues Pac-12 Conference play at the Hellman Tennis Complex on Saturday at 12 p.m., when the Golden Bears (9-5 record, 3-0 Pac-12) host No. 17 USC (10-8, 3-1 Pac-12).
 
Admission is free to regular-season matches at the Hellman Tennis Complex. Fans can also follow the action and scores at Hellman via the live stream by clicking here and can follow updates of Cal matches at @CalWomensTennis.
 
Under current state and local guidelines, fans attending events held in outdoor venues are strongly encouraged to wear facial coverings at all times.
 
Poll Position: Multiple Bears Ranked This Week
Cal is ranked 14th in this week's ITA and Tennis Channel/USTA team polls. The Bears also have three doubles teams ranked in the top 50 this week, including Cal's duo of Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm, who are ranked 29th, Haley Giavara and Valentina Ivanov, who are ranked 35th, and Alsola and Erin Richardson, who are ranked 45th. While Alsola and Richardson (10-4 record) owe much of their ranking to their success in the fall – when the two reached the semifinals of the ITA Northwest Regional Championships and qualified for the ITA Fall National Championships – the newer duo of Alsola and Wiersholm has posted a 5-0 record in the spring and played at court-one doubles in the last two dual matches. Giavara and Ivanov have a 14-5 record that includes a 9-0 mark in tournament play.
 
In singles, Alsola is ranked 62nd this week, followed by Giavara at No. 101 and Wiersholm at No. 122. Alsola improved to 26-5 when she beat Colorado's Caroline Pozo, 6-4, 6-3, at court-two singles in the recent shutout win over the Buffaloes (see below). Giavara improved to 10-9 with a win against the Buffaloes on court one, while Wiersholm remained unbeaten on the season at 16-0 with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Colorado's Maria Campos on court three.
 
Last Time: No. 13 Cal Routs No. 32 Utah and Colorado
Cal improved to 9-5 and 3-0 in the Pac-12 with a pair of 7-0 routs of No. 32 Utah and Colorado in Berkeley.
 
Against Utah, No. 13 Cal rolled to its shutout victory on March 18 at Hellman. Katja Wiersholm clinched her second straight Cal win when she defeated Lindsay Hung at court-three singles. The 47th-ranked duo of Wiersholm and Jessica Alsola defeated the 54th-ranked Emily Dush and Anastasia Goncharova to clinch the doubles point.
 
On March 20, the 103rd-ranked Haley Giavara beat Colorado's Antonia Balzert, 6-1, 6-3, to clinch the latest 7-0 victory for the Bears at the Hellman Tennis Complex. The Bears clinched the doubles point when Erin Richardson and Julia Rosenqvist defeated the Buffaloes Megan Forster and Mila Stanojevic on court three. 
 
Scouting the Bears

• Freshman Jessica Alsola reached the singles semifinals of the ITA Northwest Regional Championships in the fall and earned her first Pac-12 Player of the Week honor (see below) on Jan. 25
• Junior Haley Giavara was a singles All-American and the ITA Northwest Regional Rookie of the Year as a freshman
• Wiersholm has clinched four of Cal's nine wins, including against Utah and the March 6, 5-2 victory over Oregon
• Wiersholm clinched Cal's first two wins of the season in the first two matches of her career against UC Santa Barbara and Pepperdine
• Cal has won the doubles point in nine of its 14 dual matches
• Former two-time NCAA doubles champion Amanda Augustus – the 2021 Pac-12 Coach of the Year and ITA Northwest Region Coach of the Year – is in her 15th year as head coach at her alma mater
• Associate head coach Zack Warren – the 2021 ITA Northwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year – is in his eighth year on the staff.

Scouting the Trojans

• USC plays at No. 13 Stanford on Friday at 1:30 p.m.
• The Trojans had a four-match winning streak snapped by a 5-2 loss to No. 8 Pepperdine on March 19 in Malibu
• Four Trojans are ranked in singles: No. 6 Eryn Cayetano, No. 41 Salma Ewing, No. 77 Snow Han & No. 78 Naomi Cheong
• Two USC pairs are ranked in doubles: No. 30 Ewing/Han & No. 64 Cayetano/Grace Piper
• Alison Swain is in her fifth season as USC's head coach

Last Season vs. USC
Hannah Viller Moeller clinched her fourth victory of the season, as 16th-ranked Cal defeated No. 32 USC, 4-3, on April 9, 2021, in Los Angeles. The freshman beat the Trojans' Summer Dvorak, 6-4, 6-0, to secure a Pac-12 Conference win for the Golden Bears. The Dane also paired with Cal senior Anna Bright to clinch the doubles point against USC.
 
Jessica Alsola Named Pac-12 Player of the Week
Cal freshman Jessica Alsola earned the Pac-12 Player of the Week honor on Jan. 25 after she helped the Golden Bears open the dual-match season 2-0 on the road. This is the first Pac-12 honor for Alsola and the first of the season for Cal.
 
Alsola picked up a big win in ninth-ranked Cal's 4-3 win over No. 2 Pepperdine on Jan. 22, defeating the 30th-ranked Victoria Flores at court-three singles, 6-3, 7-6(5), in Malibu. One day earlier, Alsola beat Camille Kiss, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, in Cal's 6-1 rout of UC Santa Barbara.
 
Along with her No. 62 singles ranking, Alsola is ranked seventh in the ITA Newcomer poll.
 
Stay Posted
For further coverage of the Bears, follow them on Twitter (@CalWomensTennis), Instagram (@CalWomensTennis) and Facebook (@CalWomensTennis).
 
Next Time
Cal plays Pepperdine for the third time this season when the Bears hosts the fifth-ranked Waves on March 29 at 12 p.m. at the Hellman Tennis Complex.