ITA
Jessica Alsola poses with her hardware and with Justin Cerny, ITA Senior Manager – Division I Women’s Tennis, after winning the final in straights sets.
CARY, N.C. – Cal women’s tennis sophomore Jessica Alsola captured the consolation singles title at the ITA All-American Championships on Sunday morning at Cary Tennis Park. Ranked 50th, Alsola defeated San Diego’s 34th-ranked Solymar Colling, 6-2, 6-3, in the final.
“It feels great especially just to represent the Bears,” said Alsola, whose run to the title included a win over USC’s 65th-ranked Snow Han in the quarterfinals. “I’ve been working more on coming forward and being the dictator in points, and I think that really helped me in my match today.”
Alsola is coming off of an excellent freshman season in which she posted records of 32-9 in singles and 23-9 in doubles, earned a final ITA ranking of 70th and was named to the All-Pac-12 second team. Also a strong doubles player, she paired with Erin Richardson to collect a final ranking of No. 74 for the 2021-22 season.
She displayed her doubles prowess at the All-American, teaming with Katja Wiersholm to reach the consolation doubles semifinals, with the duo upsetting Tennessee’s fifth-seeded and 10th-ranked Rebeka Mertena and Esther Adeshina in the quarterfinal round, 6-2, 6-1.
“It was really a great opportunity for Jess in singles and doubles to get to see all the other top players in the country,” Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. “She had a fantastic freshman year and is already considered one of the top players in the country. It was good for her to get to play in the first major national event of the year and do so well. She and Katja also had a top-10 win in doubles at the All-American. The players they played against in Cary all ranked quite high nationally, and having your program represented so well in this tournament bodes really well for the rest of the fall.”
Alsola played eight matches – including singles and doubles – over five days at the ITA All-American.
“Jessica and our whole team are doing a better job on fitness,” Augustus said. “It’s great to see her play so many matches; she could probably play five more. And she really executed the strategy well today against Colling from USD. She has a lot…
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