Alsola, Mushika Qualify For NCAA Doubles Championship

Jessica Alosla (left) and Mao Mushika (right) – who qualified for the NCAA Doubles Championship on Friday – play in the ITA All-American semifinals Saturday at 11 a.m. PT.

WTEN9/27/2024 9:09 PM | By: Cal Athletics

CARY, N.C. – The California women’s tennis pair of Jessica Alsola and Mao Mushika did something on Friday that’s normally accomplished near the end of a season – qualify for an NCAA championship. The Golden Bears did that by winning their doubles quarterfinal in the ITA All-American Championships, which moved them into Saturday’s semifinals at Cary Tennis Park and punched their tickets to the NCAA Doubles Championship in Waco, Texas, in November. The two Bears are also the first student-athletes from any Cal team to qualify for an NCAA championship during the 2024-25 school year.
 
The 16th-ranked Alsola and Mushika defeated Vanderbilt’s 29th-ranked Celia-Belle Mohr and Sophia Webster 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. The Bears next face UCLA’s 15th-ranked Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle in the semifinals at 11 a.m. PT on Saturday. The winners of that match compete Sunday for the doubles crown.
 
Over the next two seasons, the NCAA doubles and singles championships – which normally take place in late May after the end of the NCAA team championship – will be held in late November, meaning players will now qualify for those tournaments much earlier than they used to, including through ITA All-Americans. The four semifinalists from the doubles main draw at All-Americans qualify for NCAA doubles, while the eight quarterfinalists from the singles main draw plus the two consolation singles finalists advance to NCAA singles.
 
Baylor will host this year’s NCAA singles and doubles championships from Nov. 19-24 and will also host the NCAA team tournament in May.
 
BERKELEY – The Golden Bears hosted the first day of the Cal Fall Invitational on Friday and, despite having two teammates away in Cary, the five who competed on day one won 11 out of 12 matches.
 
“It was a good day for the Bears overall,” Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. “This was a good opportunity for our two freshmen Bears, Sophie Hernandez and Naomi Xu, to play their first college matches and get their first college wins. We’re excited to get our tournament going, have beautiful…