4 Bears Open NCAA Individual Championships

ITA

Jessica Alsola returns to the NCAA individual championships for the third time when the Bears compete in Waco.

Four Golden Bears will represent the California women's tennis team at the individual NCAA championships in the first year the national tournaments will take place in the fall. Cal is tied for the most singles competitors Katja Wiersholm, Mao Mushika And Lan Mi will compete in the NCAA Singles Championship at Baylor on Tuesday. The couple Mushika and Jessica Alsola will play in the NCAA Doubles Championship starting Wednesday at the Hurd Tennis Center.

The Bears are looking to add five in doubles to their storied program of seven individual NCAA titles (Amanda Augustus/Amy Jensen, 1998; August/Jensen, 1999; Jensen/Claire Curran, 2000; Raquel [Kops-Jones] Atawo/Christina Fusano, 2003; Mari Andersson/Jana Juricova, 2009) and two in singles (Susie Babos, 2006; Juricova, 2011).

Here are the details for the final competitions of the fall:

NCAA Individual Championships

When: Tuesday, 7am PT; Wednesday, 7am PT; Thursday, 8am PT; Friday, 8am PT; Saturday, 8am PT; Sunday, 9am PT
Where: Baylor, Hurd Tennis Center, Waco, Texas
Watch: ESPN+ (Cracked Rackets CrossCourt Cast), Play Sight

Pulls: Singles, Double

Live Scores: Sidearm stats
Baylor's NCAA Championship site

Poll position

Five Bears ranked number 30 on the first ITA singles survey of 2024-2025 Jessica Alsolano. 33 Katja Wiersholmno. 80 Lan Mino. 106 Berta Passola Folk and no. 107 Mao Mushika. Three Cal pairs are ranked in doubles No. 16 Alsola and Mushika, No. 25 Passola Folch and Wiersholm, and No. 79 Mi and freshmen Naomi Xu.

Alsola, music qualifies for NCAA Doubles

The Cal pair became seniors in September Jessica Alsola and sophomores Mao Mushika playing in their first tournament as a doubles team reached the doubles semifinals of the ITA All-American Championships in Cary, North Carolina, to qualify for the NCAA Doubles Championships. The 16th-seeded Bears defeated Vanderbilt's 29th-seeded Celia-Belle Mohr and Sophia Webster 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals to advance. In the All-American semifinals, Mushika and Alsola fell to UCLA's 15th-ranked Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle 6-3, 6-2.

This is Alsola's second NCAA doubles appearance with which she has teamed Katja Wiersholm in 2023, with the Bears falling in the round of 32. Alsola also played in NCAA singles in 2022, falling in the first round.

Mushika and Alsola bring a 3-1 record into their opening round of 32 matches in Waco against top-seeded and 15th-ranked Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle of UCLA at a time to be announced.

Wiersholm advances to Waco in ITA Conference Masters

Kal Sr Katja Wiersholm booked her ticket to Waco as she advanced to the singles semifinals in the ITA Conference Masters Championships on November 8 in Rome, Georgia. Third-seeded Wiersholm, ranked 33rd, defeated UC San Diego's Julia Haynes 5-8 6-0, 6-2 in the singles quarterfinals to claim a spot in the NCAA singles. The Cal veteran withdrew from the ITA Conference Masters semifinals due to illness. This is Wiersholm's second trip to the NCAA Singles Championship, including last season, when she lost in the round of 64. She also competed in the 2023 NCAA Doubles Championship, with Wiersholm and Jessica Alsola fell in the round of 32.

Wiersholm has a 3-1 record heading into her opening round of 64 match against Wichita State's Xin Tong Wang at a time to be announced Tuesday.

Mushika and Mi complete Cal's qualifying group at ITA Sectionals
Mao Mushika earned her second trip to the NCAA individual championships when 107th-ranked Bear defeated Pepperdine's Vivian Yang 6-1, 6-3 on Nov. 8 in the quarterfinals of the ITA West Sectional Championships in Los Angeles. On November 9 at the ITA West Sectional Championships, Lan Mi became the third Bears to qualify for NCAA singles this season when she defeated Pepperdine's Yang in a playoff match 6-2, 6-4, while Mushika defeated UCLA's Kate Fakih 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the semi-finals.

Mushika (7-3) will face Auburn's 82nd seed Angella Okutoyi on Tuesday in the first round of NCAA singles at a time to be announced, while Mi (6-3) will face South's Kaitlyn Carnicella in the first round Carolina. announced.

Last time at individual NCAAs

Cal qualified three Bears for NCAA singles and one pair for NCAA doubles last season in Stillwater, Okla., when the individual championships were held in the spring. In forty-third place Valentina IvanovRanked 44th Hannah Villers Moeller and ranked 49th Katja Wiersholm competed in singles, with all three Bears falling in the opening round of 64. In doubles, Viller Moeller and Mushika also fell in the first round.

Decorated alum Kusano Wallace joins the staff

Cal alumna Stephanie Kusano Wallace a former All-American who led the Golden Bears to the 2008 NCAA finals, returned to Berkeley this season to join the Bears' staff as an assistant coach. With a decorated playing career at Cal from 2004-2008, Kusano Wallace helped lead the program to the NCAA Final Four in 2007 and, as co-captain the following year, led the Bears to a national runner-up finish at the NCAA Championship. That 2007–08 season saw Kusano Wallace receive All-Pac-10 Second-Team honors and was named a doubles All-American. A two-time Pac-10 All-Academic Team member, she graduated from Cal in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in legal studies.

Most recently, Kusano Wallace served as Director of Tennis at Meadowood Napa Valley and contributed to USTA Northern California's Player Development programs.

Brogan inducted into the ITA Women's Hall of Fame

For her many contributions to the sport of women's tennis, former Cal head coach Jan Brogan, who led the program from 1978 to 2007, was inducted into the ITA Women's Hall of Fame on October 5 in Williamsburg, Virginia. Brogan retired from Cal with a record of 539–223 (.707 winning percentage), which at the time placed her fourth on the NCAA's all-time wins list. She led the Bears to 26 consecutive NCAA Championship appearances and 19 top-10 finishes starting in 1982.

Many of her protégés, including the current Cal head coach Amanda Augustus and Christina Fusano Hinds, who introduced Brogan at the induction, attended the ceremony on the campus of William & Mary, home of the ITA Women's Hall of Fame.

Stay informed

For more coverage of the bears, follow them on Twitter (@CalWomensTennis), Instagram(@CalWomensTennis) and Facebook(/CalLadiesTennis).