Cal Concludes Play In Hawaii

Makenna Thiel finished 2-1 in singles in Hawaii.

WTEN1/7/2023 7:44 PM | By: Cal Athletics

HONOLULU – California women’s tennis completed play in the University of Hawaii’s Weinman Foundation Invitational on Saturday, with Jessica Alsola, Berta Passola Folch and Makenna Thiel winning in singles at the UH Tennis Complex.
 
Alsola, a sophomore ranked 16th in singles, defeated Iowa State’s 114th-ranked Sofia Cabezas, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5. Thiel, also a sophomore, beat Iowa State’s Christin Hsieh, 6-2, 6-4, while Passola Folch, a freshman, beat Hawaii’s Klara Novakova, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1. The three Bears each finished 2-1 in singles in Hawaii.
 
Cal made the trip back to Hawaii for the Weinman Foundation Invitational with the help of the Newmark Award, an annual accolade given to Cal teams with the best cumulative grade-point averages in various categories in the previous year.
 
“I want to thank Kent and Pat Newmark for helping make this trip possible for our team,” said Cal head coach Amanda Augustus, whose team won the Newmark Award last year – as the Cal “small” team with the best grade-point average – to earn a $7,500 stipend for its operating budget. “I’m just proud of the team for being motivated academically so that we could come to Hawaii again. And I want to thank Jun Hernandez, the Hawaii head coach who used to be a Bear coach, who was able to accommodate us.”
 
Players from No. 12 Cal, No. 14 USC, No. 22 Iowa State, Hawaii and Washington State played in singles and doubles in the invitational, though champions weren’t chosen.
 
“We got a lot of great competition this week and played some teams we haven’t seen much of before,” Augustus said. “It was great to get back on the court. We had a ton of three-set matches, so we got to see where our fitness was at. Having a new player in Berta, we used the trip to look at some different doubles combinations and see what we have to fine tune.”
 
And speaking of the newest Bear…
 
“She did great,” Augustus said. “It was fun to see her in a Cal uniform for the first time. She was able to graduate from high school early – because she’s a really good student – and join us. She’s a great addition to the team and fits in really well with our team culture. We haven’t started school at Cal yet, so this was a good…