Bears Open Season With Cal Fall Invite

BERKELEY – The California women's tennis program opens the 2022-23 season with the Cal Fall Invitational at the Hellman Tennis Complex and Channing Tennis Courts. Fourteen teams will send players to compete in the Golden Bears' annual singles and doubles event, which begins Friday and ends Sunday.

Matches will start at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, 9 a.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. on Sunday.

Players from the following teams will join the Bears in the Cal Fall Invitational: Arizona State, BYU, Cal Poly, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Iowa State, Pacific, Sacramento State, Saint Mary's, San Francisco, San Jose State, Santa Clara, Stanford and UC Davis. Please check back here on Thursday afternoon for the draws.
 
Admission is free to regular-season matches at the Hellman Tennis Complex and Channing Tennis Courts. Fans can also follow the action at Hellman via the live stream by clicking here and can follow updates of Cal matches at @CalWomensTennis. The Channing Tennis Courts do not feature a live stream.
 
Bears Invited To ITA All-American Championships
Cal sophomores Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm earned invitations to the ITA All-American Championships held in Cary, North Carolina. Alsola is one of 32 players who will compete in main draw singles, while Alsola and Wiersholm are in the field of 32 in main draw doubles, with both main draws scheduled for Oct. 5-9. Wiersholm is also in the field of 64 for qualifying singles, slated for Oct. 3-4. Cary Tennis Park, Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State are the hosts of the annual ITA tournament.
 
Poll Position
The Bears earned five rankings in the ITA's preseason polls. Senior Haley Giavara is ranked 25th in singles, Jessica Alsola is ranked 50th and Katja Wiersholm is 97th. In doubles, the pair of Giavara and senior Erin Richardson is ranked 42nd and the duo of senior Valentina Ivanov and junior Hannah Viller Moeller is 57th.
 
Scouting the Bears

• In the final ITA polls of the 2021-22 season, Haley Giavara was ranked 36th and Jessica Alsola was 70th in singles, while in doubles Giavara and Valentina Ivanov were 40th and Alsola and Erin Richardson were 74th
• Five Bears returning for the 2022-23 season earned 2022 All-Pac-12 honors, led by second-team selections Giavara and Alsola, and including honorable mentions Wiersholm, Richardson and Hannah Viller Moeller
• A two-time singles All-American – who earned her second honor last season - Giavara posted records of 15-14 in singles and 21-9 in doubles last spring
• Alsola compiled the best singles record (32-9) for the Bears and was also 23-9 in doubles last year
• Over the summer, Alsola won a doubles title and was the singles runner-up in a 15K Frederiksberg tournament in Denmark
• Wiersholm – who was 21-3 in singles and 17-5 in doubles as a freshman – won her first 17 singles matches before losing in Cal's 4-3 win over No. 5 Pepperdine in Berkeley
• Wiersholm reached the doubles semifinals and the singles round of 16 of the USTA Billie Jean King Girls' 18 National Championships in August
• Viller Moeller, a junior, was 27-13 in singles and 11-7 in doubles as a sophomore
• Over the summer, Viller Moeller repeated as the Danish singles and mixed doubles champion
• Also over the summer, Ivanov, now a senior, won a 15K Monastir doubles title in Tunisia
• As a junior, Ivanov was 14-13 in singles and 19-10 in doubles
• Former 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 (including in 2021-22) – is in her 16th year as head coach at her alma mater
• Associate head coach Zack Warren – the 2022 ITA Northwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year, who has collected four regional awards overall – is in his ninth year on the staff

Last Time In The Cal Fall Invite
Cal closed the 2021 Cal Fall Invitational on a high note, capturing three titles. Haley Giavara and Valentina Ivanov won the top-flight doubles crown, Erin Richardson and Makenna Thiel collected the Gold doubles title and Jessica Alsola took the top-flight singles title in finals played at the Hellman Tennis Complex.

On Sept. 26, the Gold doubles final was among the first matches to end, with the fourth-seeded Richardson and Thiel defeating UC Santa Barbara's Camille Kiss and Marta Gonzalez Ballbe, 8-5. A few minutes later, the top-seeded and 14th-ranked Ivanov and Giavara then beat the Gauchos' Amelia Honer and Shakhnoza Khatamova, 8-6, in the Blue doubles final.

Following doubles, Alsola, the fifth seed in the Blue singles draw, prevailed over San Diego State's Tamara Arnold in the final, 6-2, 6-0, to win her first title as a collegian.

Review of 2021-22
Cal made a deep postseason run after capturing the Pac-12 Conference regular-season title to cap another strong season in 2021-22. Cal defeated Stanford, 5-2, in the regular-season finale to earn the Pac-12 crown and the top seed in the conference tournament, with senior Julia Rosenqvist – who clinched Cal's 2021 Pac-12 tournament championship win – clinching the victory over the Cardinal. Head coach Amanda Augustus led the Bears to an 8-1 Pac-12 record and to an overall record of 18-8.
 
In NCAA tournament matches in Berkeley, 11th-seeded Cal shut out Northern Arizona, 4-0, in the first round and Texas Tech, 4-0, in the second round, with Rosenqvist clinching each time, to send the Bears to the round of 16. Cal ran into a talented N.C. State team in the third round, falling to the sixth-seeded Wolfpack, 4-0, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Cal ended the year ranked 11th in the ITA poll.
 
Haley Giavara and Jessica Alsola continued their seasons in the NCAA Singles Championship. Giavara won twice to earn her second All-America singles honor, while Alsola fell in the first round. Giavara dropped her round of 16 match on May 25 to end the season for the Bears.
 
Next Time
After Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm compete in the ITA All-American Championships from Oct. 3-9 in Cary, the Bears will play in the ITA Northwest Regional Championships from Oct. 14-18 at Stanford.
 
Stay Posted
For further coverage of the Bears, follow them on Twitter (@CalWomensTennis), Instagram (@CalWomensTennis) and Facebook (@CalWomensTennis).