Well. 12 Cal opens dual season at home

Robert Edwards/KLC photos

Hannah Viller Moeller brings a 9-2 singles record into the first week of dual meets for the Bears.

WT18.1.2023 17:40 | Posted by: Cal Athletics

BERKELEY The 12th-ranked California women’s tennis team will make its home debut in 2023 and kick off the dual meet season this weekend when the Golden Bears host UC Santa Barbara and 10th-ranked Pepperdine in an out-of-conference match at the Hellman Tennis Complex.

Cal faces the Gauchos on Saturday at 12pm and then battles the Waves on Sunday at 12pm.

Admission to Hellman’s regular season tennis is free. Live broadcasts and results from the six Hellman fields are available by clicking here. Fans can also follow Cal game updates on Twitter at @CalWomensTennis.

Cal Winter Invitational Raised Out

Cal Winter Invitational, which was scheduled for 13-15 in January, which was supposed to be the Bears’ 2023 home debut, was rained out.

Bears start 2023 in Hawaii

Cal opened the New Year on the 5th-7th. January at the Weinman Foundation Invitational at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. The highlights of the three-day event were the debut of the freshmen Berta Passola Folch and the return of the senior Haley Giavara, who posted his first singles and doubles wins of the season after missing the first half of the year. Also Passola Folch, Jessica Alsola and Makenna Thiel each posted a 2-1 singles record at the event.

Poll location

Cal is ranked No. 12 in the Jan. 18 ITA poll. The Bears finished the 2021-22 season in 11th place.

In the last individual ITA polls of 2022 Jessica Alsola (9-2 record) finished 16th in singles. Hannah Villers Moeller (9-2) finished 93rd. Duo Alsola and Katja Wiersholm (13-4) was ranked 15th in doubles and in the pairing of Alsola and senior Valentina Ivanova (3-1) was 51.

Bear patrol

• Haley Giavara ended fall 2022 in France where Cal senior and Team USA won Master’U BNP Paribas Championship as Cal head coach Amanda Augustus again to US staff
• Second year students Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm were outstanding in the fall as the pair won the ITA Northwest Regional Championships and reached the consolation doubles finals at the ITA National Fall Championships
• Alsola, Wiersholm and junior Hannah Villers Moeller reached the singles quarterfinals at the ITA regional competition
• Also last fall, Alsola won the consolation singles championship at the ITA All-American Championships
• 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 2021-22) is in his 16th year as head coach at his alma mater.
• Assistant head coach Zack Warren The 2022 ITA Northwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year, who has collected a total of four regional awards, is in his ninth year on staff

Gaucho patrol

• UCSB will play at UC Davis on Friday at 1:00 PM in the opener of their dual meet
• Amelia Honer is ranked 49th in singles
• The 2022 Big West Champion Gauchos finished last season with a 21-7 record after being eliminated in the second round of the NCAA Championship.
• Also in the 2021-22 season, Shakhnoza Khatamova, now a senior, played in the NCAA Singles Championship, falling in the first round.
• Simon Thibodeau is in his 11th season as UCSB’s head coach

Wave patrol

• Sunday’s game is the opening game for the Waves
• In Pepperdine’s most recent competition, Lisa Zaar won the top singles spot at UNLV’s Freeman Memorial Championship on Jan. 15
• Zaar won the singles title at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships in the fall
• In singles, Janice Tjen is 12th and Savannah Broadus is 21st.
• The doubles duo of Tjen and Broadus, who reached the semifinals of the 2022 NCAA Doubles Championship, finishes fourth
• Last season, Pepperdine finished 23-7 as it reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship
• Per Nilsson is in his ninth year as Pepperdine’s head coach

Next time

27.-28. January Cal will host one of 15 ITA Kickoff Weekends across the nation, with the winner of each four-team event advancing to the ITA National Indoor Team Championship at the University of Washington. The Bears welcome Georgia Tech, San Diego and Princeton to Berkeley, Cal plays Princeton and Georgia Tech faces USD on Jan. 28. After the consolation game on January 28, the two winners will compete for the right to advance to Seattle.

Stay updated

For more information on the Bears, follow them on Twitter (@CalWomensTennis), Instagram (@CalWomensTennis) and Facebook (@CalWomensTennis).