Originally, the Bears intended to send five players to last weekend’s tournament, but a series of injuries and an NCAA clearance issue with freshman Maegan Manasse left only Kelly Chui and Cecilia Estlander eligible to represent Cal in Moraga.

Despite hoping to defend Bears’ tournament titles, the two fell short of last year’s sweeping success.

On Friday, Chui was defeated in the first round of the Red Flight singles tournament by Fresno State’s Aishwarya Agrawal in straight sets 6-4, 6-2. Estlander only advanced one round further than her teammate before falling to Saint Mary’s Catherine Leduc 7-6 (5), 6-2.

The Red Flight doubles draw did not yield much more success for Cal. Chui and Estlander paired up for a decisive 8-2 win over USF but were subsequently halted by another impressive performance by Fresno State — this time by the doubles tandem of Agrawal and Claire Yang. The doubles team defeated the Bears in a close 8-5 victory.

“I had goals in the beginning of the tournament, and I really wish I had stuck to them,” said Chui, “When times were tough, I sometimes doubted myself, and I feel like if I had just stuck to my goals, I would have won more matches.”

Chui’s early defeat slated her in the consolation draw of the Red Flight tournament, where she saw considerably more success than she did in the main draw.

On Saturday, she defeated LMU’s Elanor Grossman in a three-set thriller 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (6) before facing Stanford’s Amelia Herring in another gripping battle. Chui eventually came out on top 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 (2), a victory that advanced her to the semifinal match against Saint Mary’s Audrey Leitz on Sunday.

Two sets against the local player eventually sent Chui packing, but not before the best comeback of Chui’s tournament performance.

After a 6-3 loss in the first set, Chui was faced with a formidable 1-5 deficit in the second. Leitz just had to keep her serve to advance to the finals. But at 30-40, Chui executed a perfect lob to catapult Leitz into a run that brought the match to 4-5. In the end, it was a blazing down-the-line forehand that won the match for Leitz.

“It felt good,” said Leitz. “I remember I played Kelly last spring and lost like 6-2, 6-2, and it felt great to win this match. I played good today, so I’m happy about that.”

Chui’s match against Leitz underscores the value of this weekend for the two Cal players despite their lackluster results. Tough match play against some of the top players in the region gave these two the chance to develop their individual games before the team — hopefully united and healthy — advances in the season.

“Of course we would have wanted to play in the finals,” said coach Amanda Augustus. “But given our current health situation, we’ll definitely take it.”

Dani Coony covers women’s tennis. Contact her at dcoony@dailycal.org.

The post Chui and Estlander of Cal women’s tennis fall short at Saint Mary’s Invitational appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kore Chan/File

As one fleet returns home, a new squad of Cal women’s tennis players will hit the road this weekend to compete at the Saint Mary’s Invitational in Moraga, Calif.

The annual tournament will begin Friday and conclude Sunday at the Korth Tennis Complex at Saint Mary’s College. In a format similar to Cal’s home-court Nike Invitational, players from around the region will compete in one of three flights of singles and doubles. This weekend’s draw will feature Cecilia Estlander, Kelly Chui, Denise Starr and Maegan Manasse. Zsofi Susanyi, Lynn Chi, Anett Schutting and Klara Fabikova will sit out after playing in last week’s ITA All-American Championships.

“I think it’s a good opportunity, because we’ve had the two tournaments with kind of this split squad, so we get to give a little bit more individual attention to each player,” said head coach Amanda Augustus.

Among the Bears who will compete in Moraga this weekend is Estlander, who captured the Gold Flight doubles title with her partner, Alice Duranteau, and reached the semis of the Gold Flight singles tournament at the Cal Nike Invitational in September. This weekend, Estlander hopes to use her experience at home to propel her to similar success at Saint Mary’s.

“I think the Nike Invitational got me more match tough,” Estlander said, “It helped me get into the match rhythm and know how to deal with having three matches a day, which is very important. This weekend, I’ll know how to recover and deal with the mental toughness.”

If Estlander can achieve her goal of earning tournament titles in both singles and doubles this weekend, it will be the second year in a row that Cal sweeps the Saint Mary’s Invitational. Last season, the Bears brought home four tournaments titles, including the top flight singles and doubles crowns. Among the victors last year were Chi and Fabikova, who both competed in the ITA All-American Championships this past week in Los Angeles.

Without some of these key players, it will be up to a fresh fleet of Bears to continue Cal’s tradition of success in Moraga.

Cal’s splintered squad will mostly face schools from the West Coast, Big West and Pac-12 conferences. There’s a good chance the Bears will recognize some of their key opponents, as several schools featured in this weekend’s tournament also competed in the Cal Nike Invitational last month. Stanford, the reigning Pac-12 Conference champion, will be a notable addition to the field.

“I’d like to see us play a little bit more polished than we did at the Cal Invite, even though we did play well there,” Augustus said.

At this point in the season, it is critical for the Bears to develop their individual strengths while facing steep competition. But Cal’s players also recognize the importance of maintaining a team energy despite their separation. After the ITA-All American Championships last weekend, Susanyi reflected on how the team was able to keep up contact.

“We were talking every day, and even though we were apart, we were able to keep this family and team chemistry up,” she said.

At this weekend’s tournament, the Bears will be separated once again. But after a lukewarm performance last week, as a team, they can only move forward.

Dani Coony covers women’s tennis. Contact her at dcoony@dailycal.org.

The post Cal women’s tennis looks to sweep Saint Mary’s Invite for second straight year appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Unfortunately for the Bears, that unpredictability yielded disappointing results for Cal’s top players as they headed home after falling to other All-Americans in last week’s ITA All-American Championships in Los Angeles.

Despite hoping for late-round match play, Cal’s Zsofi Susanyi, Anett Schutting, Klara Fabikova and Lynn Chi were all back in Berkeley two days early after getting caught up in the tournament’s many upsets and surprises — the greatest of which culminated in unseeded Jamie Loeb’s win over No. 1 seed Robin Anderson in the singles final on Sunday. The Bears, meanwhile, did not advance farther than the second round of either the doubles or singles main draw despite holding some of the top seeds in the tournament.

The disappointing outcome echoes last year’s ITA All-American Championships result, when both Susanyi and Schutting lost in the same round of the main draw as they did in this year’s showing.

“A day after, I actually feel happy about what I did this week because now I know what I have to work on, and I’m able to carry this on to the next couple weeks,” Susanyi said.

The No. 4 ranked player first defeated opponent Sophie Oyen of Florida 6-3, 6-4 before losing to eventual tournament victor Loeb of North Carolina. Familiarity with her first opponent, ranked 16th in the country, was key to Susanyi’s initial success.

“I knew what to expect, I had a clear plan, and I was able to execute it in that match, so I’m really happy with that,” Susanyi said.

But in Susanyi’s second match, she was forced to improvise.

After falling behind 4-1 in the first set against an unfamiliar opponent, Susanyi came back to tie it up at 5-5. However, relentless rallies and a searing return from Loeb left Susanyi just a few points shy of capturing the first set. Ultimately, these key points were what cost Susanyi the set and started a downward spiral that left her with a tournament-ending loss of 7-6, 6-1.

The high-endurance style of play in Susanyi’s match appeared to be an essential characteristic of last week’s competition. It was not uncommon for the number of shots in a rally to go beyond 10 or 20 during Cal’s matches. In comparison, the first rounds of the Nike Invitational back in Berkeley saw ball numbers of about three to four.

“National tournaments like this, everybody has that base, and we just have to keep building up that base and make adjustments — probably like three or four adjustments — each set,” Susanyi said.

Making these key adjustments will be necessary as the Bears look to move forward from an underwhelming tournament outcome. Facing the toughest competition in collegiate women’s tennis is no small order, and any victory in a tournament of this caliber is a success this early in the season. Sophomores Chi and Fabikova both had significant wins in the qualifying and consolation rounds, which featured some of the top 30 players in the country.

“I think we made some great strides this week,” said head coach Amanda Augustus. “It was a really good step up, and I think they learned a lot from their experience down there.”

Later in the season, however, these strides will need to translate to wins if this squad of top-ranked players hopes to meet expectations on a national level.

Dani Coony covers women’s tennis. Contact her at dcoony@dailycal.org.

The post Cal women’s tennis endures disappointing results at ITA All-American Championships appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kevin Hahn/Staff

Following a successful weekend at home, the Cal women’s tennis team will send four singles players and two doubles teams to Los Angeles to compete against a field composed entirely of All-Americans.

The Riviera/ITA All-American Championships begin this Tuesday and will end on Sunday at the Riviera Tennis Club. Taking place in just the first week of the competitive season, the All-American Championships are known as the first of the three grand slams in collegiate women’s tennis. The competition will test the top-ranked Cal players on a different level from what they have seen so far in the nascent 2013-14 season.

“Those that are going this week are going to have a much stiffer test, and I think that will really give us a look at everyone in the country,” said head coach Amanda Augustus.

The Bears heading to Southern California this week include Anett Schutting and Zsofi Susanyi, ranked No. 5 and No. 4 in the country, respectively. Both are automatically slotted to compete in the main draw of the singles tournament on Thursday. In the singles qualifying rounds, sophomores Lynn Chi and Klara Fabikova will represent Cal as they each compete for one of the eight open spots in the main draw. The four of them also make up the two doubles teams playing this week.

On Tuesday, match play will kick-off as the No.7 seed Fabikova and Susanyi face Goldfeld and Mulholland of Duke in the qualifying doubles tournament. Cal’s combination hopes to build on the momentum it gained after winning the top-flight doubles title at last weekend’s Cal Nike Invitational. On the way to this victory, they defeated top-seeded teammates Chi and Schutting, who have automatic bids in the main doubles draw this Thursday and are ranked 11th in the country.

“I think it was good preparation for us,” said Fabikova. “To me, it was definitely a little bit of a struggle, but I think it’s good that we got these first matches in here and we’re ready to play down in L.A.”

Among this week’s cutthroat field are reigning Riviera/ITA All-American doubles champions Sabrina Santamaria and Kaitlyn Christian of USC. Santamaria also holds the No. 1 preseason ranking and will compete in the main singles draw this year. The top-ranked Trojan was missing from last weekend’s Nike Invitational, so the Bears have yet to prove themselves against such steep competition.

Last year, Cal’s early foray into the big leagues did not go as well as expected. None of the Bears made it past the second round of the main draw, despite Susanyi holding the No. 2 seed in the main draw of the singles tournament. This year, the top player hopes to build on the skills that allowed her to triumph at last weekend’s Nike Invitational.

“Steady from the baseline, that’s something that I really need (this week) because all players in the country — all of the top 30 probably — are really tough. So I have to play my A-game and bring it all the time, every match,” said Susanyi.

The Bears head to the first grand slam this season with a more experienced crew of singles and doubles combinations than they have had in several years. But whether they meet success this week, coach Augustus realizes the importance of keeping the season in perspective.

“We’ll be able to build from there, and that’s kind of our goal — to just build through the fall semester and hopefully be peaking by the end of fall,” Augustus said.

Dani Coony covers women’s tennis. Contact her at dcoony@dailycal.org.

The post Cal women’s tennis sends four to tough field of All-Americans appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kore Chan/Staff

During tournament season in women’s tennis, the odd situation of a player facing her own teammate is a real possibility. For Cal, it is almost tradition at the annual Cal Nike Invitational. Despite a field of 97 players from more than a dozen different teams, most of the Bears played against their own teammates when they reached the final rounds of last weekend’s tournament.

The three-day home court tournament ended on Sunday with an all-Cal sweep of the top flight singles and doubles titles. Cal’s No. 1 seed Zsofi Susanyi defeated teammate Anett Schutting 6-1, 6-1 in the Blue-Flight singles final, and the combination of Susanyi and Klara Fabikova defeated teammates Schutting and Lynn Chi 8-6 in the doubles final. The Bears also picked up a Gold-Flight doubles title with the unseeded duo of Alice Duranteau and Cessi Estlander.

“I’m proud of what they’ve done this weekend,” said head coach Amanda Augustus. “We’ve only been training for a few weeks. It’s good to see that some of the things we’ve been working on are being put into their match play, under pressure, successfully.”

Cal’s success is reminiscent of last year’s Nike Invitational, in which Susanyi also took home the top-flight singles crown in a 6-0, 6-2 win over Schutting. That year, Schutting earned the top-flight doubles title with her partner, the now-graduated Annie Goransson.

The Bears had an even greater presence in the late rounds of the tournament this year. Sophomore Lynn Chi upset USC’s No. 3 seed Brynn Boren 6-1, 6-4 to reach the semifinal match against Susanyi in the Blue-Flight tournament.

“Lynn and I are really close, and I was talking to her last night about playing her in singles and doubles,” Susanyi said. “But when I’m playing an individual tournament, I kind of have to close that out and focus on what I’m doing on the court.”

But Susanyi’s teammates were not the only familiar faces on the court she had to worry about. In the quarterfinals, Susanyi faced rival Jenny Jullien of Saint Mary’s in a three-hour tournament-highlight match that tested the endurance of both players. In last year’s Nike Invitational semifinals, Susanyi defeated Jullien in a three-set thriller, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.

After a quick 4-1 lead by Susanyi, a multiple-deuce game proved to be a turning point for Jullien. During the game, uncharacteristic errors from both players frustrated the two, who both seemed to want a clean end to battle.

“I wanted it to go cross-court, and it goes down the line — how is that even possible?” said Jullien after losing the fifth deuce.

In the end, Jullien won the pivotal game to bring the set score to 4-2. Afterward, she surged to tie the game 4-4. From that point on, the game was a back-and-forth struggle for both players that culminated in a 7-6, 7-5 win for Susanyi. Twenty-plus-point rallies left both exhausted, and it was ultimately Susanyi’s patient and enduring playing style that allowed her to pull through.

“Every time I play Jenny, I go on court knowing that is going to be a long match, and I’m going to have to fight,” Susanyi said.

Following the grueling test in the quarters, Susanyi faced her teammates in the semis and eventually the finals in what would be a streamlined performance against both Chi and Schutting. This type of play will be necessary as the No. 4 player in the country looks forward to future matchups this season. For now, she is satisfied with achieving the goal she made from the outset of this tournament.

“My goal is to win the tournament,” Susanyi said last Friday.

Three days and 10 straight winning singles sets later, she met and exceeded this goal.

Dani Coony covers women’s tennis. Contact her at dcoony@dailycal.org.

The post Susanyi dominates as Cal women’s tennis sweeps Cal Nike Invitational appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Led by a squad of some of the best women’s tennis players in the country, the Cal women’s tennis team will welcome the 2013-14 season with a home-court tournament debut.

The annual Cal Nike Invitational, which begins Friday at 8 a.m. and runs every day through Sunday, will host 16 teams from across the country at the Hellman and Channing tennis courts. This three-day battle will give the talented Cal team a chance to test its strength for the first time, albeit in familiar territory.

“We have had quite a bit of success in this tournament,” said coach Amanda Augustus. “It’s just a good time to check where we are fitnesswise and be able to see what we need to work on as we continue to build through the fall semester.”

After a successful 2012-13 season in which the Bears reached the NCAA round of 16 and finished with an ITA ranking of ninth in the country, there will be a lot of returning talent to look out for in this weekend’s event. Key players include junior Zsofi Susanyi, who earned a preseason singles ranking of No. 4 in the country, and senior Anett Schutting, who ranked No. 5. Both Susanyi and Schutting claimed ITA All-America honors last season, and they likely will fill the top singles seeds of this weekend’s tournament.

For Susanyi, whose personal goal is to defend last year’s Gold Flight singles title, such high expectations are not intimidating.

“I look at it as a challenge, because rankings have always been there for me, but for me it’s really just points, and I want to do as well as I can,” Susanyi said. “If I beat someone ranked higher than me, of course I’m happy, but it’s not going to set me back.”

This level-headed attitude will be necessary in a field as wide and competitive as this weekend’s. Among the teams featured is conference rival and reigning Pac-12 champion USC. This year’s Trojans include three singles players ranked in the top 20, including No.1 Sabrina Santamaria, No. 17 Zoe Scandalis and No. 19 Brynn Boren. USC also expects to have a strong showing in doubles, with Santamaria sharing the top doubles ranking with partner Kaitlyn Christian.

Other tournament teams to watch include Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara, which both showcase high-ranked singles and doubles combinations with experience in this particular tournament.

In last year’s Cal Nike Invitational, Susanyi defeated Schutting, 6-0, 6-2, in an all-Cal Gold Flight singles final. On the way to this victory, Susanyi advanced past Santa Clara’s fourth-seeded Katie Le in the semifinals, and Schutting beat Saint Mary’s sixth-seeded Jenny Jullien. All of these players return as contenders in this week’s tournament.

With the Bears and other tournament teams returning such strong casts, Cal realizes defending its backyard titles will not be easy. The Bears also realize success will depend not only on repeating last year’s performances but on building upon them.

“We were a fairly young team last year,” Augustus said. “So I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve learned after last season and where they’re at.”

Dani Coony covers women’s tennis. Contact him at dcoony@dailycal.org.

The post Cal women’s tennis will host 16 team Cal Nike Invitational appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Ashley Chen/File

The Cal women’s tennis team might rank seventh on The Daily Californian’s Power Rankings right now, but expect the young squad to jump much higher in coming years.

The team, which finished the year ranked at No. 9 in the country and made it to the elite eight of the NCAA tournament, is retaining virtually all of its top players.

At the beginning of the year, Zsofi Susanyi came in playing on the top court for Cal. She plays solid, all-around tennis, waiting for her opponent to make a mistake — something she can afford to do because she rarely makes any herself. When she plays, her intensity shows in a way that is only reminiscent of elite players — imagine an on-the-court personality like that of Kobe Bryant or Tiger Woods.

And Susanyi wasn’t just the best player for the Bears — she was briefly tied for the top spot in the entire country.

But when injuries sent Susanyi out of the lineup for much of her sophomore season, incoming senior Anett Schutting rose to take her place.

Schutting’s aggressive, win-first mentality enabled her to put together an 11-5 record on the top court in singles, and she soon rose in the ranks to the top 10 in the country.

While Susanyi battled injuries and Schutting battled top opponents, two freshmen were tearing up the court for the Bears. Lynn Chi played as high as the No. 2 court when Susanyi was out, posting an 8-2 record when she did so. Shortly after that, Klara Fabikova rose in the lineup, using her powerful shots to also ascend to the No. 2 court, where she put up a 5-1 record.

For those of you keeping track at home, that leaves Cal with at least two players (Schutting and Susanyi) who have proven themselves on the No. 1 court and two more (Chi and Fabikova) who are more than capable of winning consistently on the No. 2 court.

Let that sink in for a moment. Not all those players can play on the top two courts, which means that two of them will be picking off opponents on courts No. 3 and No. 4.

That young roster led to a win over Stanford, the eventual NCAA champions, for the first time in four years. The team also topped tough opponents like then-No. 6 USC and then-No. 4 UCLA and was only knocked out of the NCAA tournament by top-ranked Florida in a close match, 4-2.

If the team can live up to the hype, it will be one of the best Cal teams in recent years.

Consider things from head coach Amanda Augustus’ perspective. She has been chasing an NCAA championship since the ’90s, when she played for Cal. When she got the coaching job in 2007, she immediately reached the finals in her first two seasons but could never pull off the big win.

But if she has a recruiting class to fill courts No. 5 and No. 6 that is as good as the Chi-Fabikova class she brought in last year, the coach will have as good of a chance at a title as she has ever had.

Contact Riley McAtee at rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee

The post Power Rankings: No. 7 women’s tennis appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Michael Tao/File

From the rankings and final results, it seems as if the Cal women’s tennis team plateaued in 2013.

The Bears began the season as the No. 7 team and finished the year at No. 9 with a loss to then-top ranked Florida in the Elite Eight. Last year, Cal similarly lost to the top team, then UCLA, in the NCAA tournament of the Elite Eight. Additionally, the team’s 19-6 record this year nearly mirrors its 20-7 effort from 2012.

But looking beyond the statistics, there is evidence of long-term improvement and a bright future for the young squad.

“We definitely took a step up this year,” said head coach Amanda Augustus. “It’s easy to look and say, ‘OK, they got to the quarters last year, they got to the quarters this year,’ but I think we competed and pushed really hard.”

At the beginning of the year, it looked like Cal’s top player was sophomore Zsofi Susanyi. After a breakout freshman year in which she posted a 41-8 record in singles matches, the Hungarian native soon found herself tied for the No. 1 ranking on February 12.

But when a hip-flexor injury forced Susanyi to the sideline, it was junior Annett Schutting’s turn to step up.

Despite never playing higher than the third court for Cal in 2012, Schutting looked comfortable almost immediately at the top court. She began the season as the No. 22 player in the country but quickly climbed into the top 10 and was ranked No. 8 on May 2.

Schutting also played on the top doubles court with one of Cal’s young freshman stars — Lynn Chi.

Chi moved onto the No. 2 court after Susanyi’s injury early in the season for the Bears, and she made the most of her opportunity. The fast and aggressive Chi posted an impressive 8-2 record on the No. 2 court and finished with an overall 19-3 record in dual matches.

However, despite her impressive play, Chi was soon bumped from the No. 2 court when Cal’s other freshman, Klara Fabikova, was simply too dominating on the No. 3 court to ignore.

Fabikova was ranked as the No. 2 freshman or new player in the preseason, but a back injury hampered her early in the year. When Fabikova returned, she used her big-hit ability and powerful shots to punish opponents on the No. 3 court. After weeks of dominating performances — including over strong opponents like Zoe Scandalis of USC and Kyle McPhillips of UCLA — Fabikova was bumped up to the No. 2 court, behind only Annett Schutting.

“Both she and Lynn had a really great freshman year in both school and tennis,” Augustus said. “I couldn’t be happier with their progress.”

The freshmen, along with Susanyi and Schutting, give the Bears a young core to work with for next season.

“I think we have a really good group, and other teams know that our top 4 are returning next year,” Augustus said. “And we only have one who will be a senior in that group, and that’s Annett.”

The challenge for Cal next year will be replacing graduating seniors Tayler Davis and Annie Goransson, who played on the No. 5 and No. 6 courts, respectively. But a recruiting class as strong as the Fabikova-Chi class of this year would make that transition easy, and the Cal roster would finally be able to definitively stand out against powerhouses USC, UCLA and Stanford.

Meanwhile, the Bears are happy with their finish, and the coaching staff is excited to move forward with a young roster that they feel can only get better in time.

“With any young team, there’s a lot of work that goes in to molding and building and teaching, so that’s something that Cordell Ho (the assistant coach) and I really enjoy doing,” Augustus said. “That’s the fun part of our job.”

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

The post Cal women’s tennis team looks toward a bright future appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Michael Tao/File

Sometimes, it feels like the tennis season never ends.

A national champion was crowned on Tuesday. Classes wrapped up more than a week ago. And yet, the Bears still had tennis to play.

Immediately following the NCAA team championships that ended on May 21, the singles and doubles tournaments got straight into action the next day in Urbana, Ill.

On Wednesday, the Bears sent three players to compete in the singles tournament, while no one made the doubles tournament. While Cal was unable to take home a victory, Zsofi Susanyi was able to advance to the Sweet 16.

Of the three players who made the singles tournament — Anett Schutting, Klara Fabikova and Zsofi Susanyi — Schutting was the first to fall.

Schutting got off to a slow start despite being the No. 8 player in the country and ultimately fell to Rice’s Natalie Beazant.

Meanwhile, the other Bears were able to advance.

The freshman Fabikova also had a slow start but was able to gain momentum en route to a 7-5, 6-2 victory over UNC’s Witney Kay.

Sophomore Zsofi Susanyi, meanwhile, featured no slow starts on the first day. She dominated her first opponent, Caroline Rohde-Moe out of Ole Miss, in a 6-3, 6-0 win on Wednesday.

As a result, the freshman and sophomore were able to advance to the NCAA round of 32.

In the second round, Fabikova was the next player to fall.

The freshman out of the Czech Republic faced a huge challenge in No. 11 Mary Weatherholt out of Nebraska. It was a match that she was never expected to win, and there would be no upsets for Fabikova. Weatherholt, who would go on to play in the finals of the tournament, ousted Fabikova in a 6-2, 6-1 route.

Meanwhile, there was still one Bear left standing.

Susanyi was still on the court for Cal. She faced UNLV’s Lucia Batta in the second round after Fabikova’s loss earlier in the day.

Like Susanyi, Batta is from Hungary, and as a result, the two are familiar with each other. With the wind howling, Susanyi was able to post a 6-3, 6-4 victory to advance to the Sweet 16.

In the third round, she faced her first real test of the tournament in No. 16 Yana Koroleva out of Clemson.

Susanyi was on a five-game win streak coming into the match, but she just couldn’t get past Koroleva. The two battled in an incredibly tight match that finished with a 7-5, 7-6(6) score that allowed Koroleva to advance.

The loss is somewhat of a disappointment following Susanyi’s trip to the semifinals last year. But it was an expected disappointment. Susanyi battled a hip flexor injury all year, and her No. 5 rating was likely inflated.

The loss brought Cal’s season to a close.

Though the Bears do not have any titles to bring with them back to Berkeley, they have a young roster to be excited about. Schutting, Susanyi and Fabikova will most likely represent the top three courts for Cal next year, and the oldest among them is Schutting, a junior.

While the Cal squad cannot boast a championship this year, its future looks bright.

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

The post Susanyi falls in Sweet 16 as Cal women’s tennis team’s season ends appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Michael Tao/File

While the NCAA team championships are over, the Bears’ season is not.

The Cal women’s tennis team sent three players to the NCAA singles championships taking place May 22-27 in Urbana, Ill.

The Bears are represented by players who finished the season at the top three courts — Anett Schutting, Klara Fabikova, and Zsofi Susanyi.

Schutting played on the top court for Cal for almost the entire season and is the No. 8 seed in the tournament. However, on Wednesday, she fell in the very first round to Rice’s Natalie Beazant in a match that featured a 45-minute rain delay midway through.

“Anett got off to a bit of a slow start,” said Cal coach Amanda Augustus. “She struggled to find her rhythm, and unfortunately, she ran into a girl that was playing really well and just ran out of time before she could find her game.”

While the rain makes for an environment that is not ideal for tennis, Augustus does not think the weather affected Schutting’s play.

“The conditions are the same for everyone,” she said. “It’s just something, as a tennis player, that you have to work through.”

While Schutting exited early, Cal’s other players were able to advance during the first day of action.

Fabikova has been playing on the No. 2 court for Cal since April despite being a freshman. Like Schutting, she got off to a slow start at the beginning of her match, falling into a 5-2 hole against North Carolina’s Witney Kay.

Fabikova then ripped off five straight games to win the first set and cruised from there to a 7-5, 6-2 victory.

“Klara did a good job of making adjustments,” Augustus said. “There might have been some first-match nerves for her, with it being her first singles tournament.”

With the win, Fabikova will face Nebraska’s Mary Weatherholt in the round of 32. Weatherholt is the No. 11 seed and should present more of a challenge to Fabikova than Kay did.

The final player that made the tournament for Cal — Zsofi Susanyi — just might be the most exciting to follow. Though she has only been playing on the No. 3 court for the Bears, she comes into the tournament as the No. 5 seed. Susanyi was injured earlier in the year, and the coaches decided to bring her back on a lower court while her NCAA ranking remained one of the highest in the country.

Last year, a healthy Susanyi made it to the NCAA singles semifinals — the furthest ever for a Cal freshman.

On Wednesday, she flew through Caroline Rohde-Moe out of Ole Miss in a 6-3, 6-0 victory.

“Zsofi won her match pretty handily,” Augustus said. “She played really smart.”

Susanyi will play UNLV’s Lucia Batta tomorrow in the second round — another player she should be heavily favored over.

But the Bears know to not look too far ahead. The singles tournament is filled with upsets, as the No. 1 seed — Florida’s Lauren Embree — lost today in the first round.

“Everyone in this tournament had a phenomenal year, or they wouldn’t be here,” Augustus said. “You have to take it day by day.”

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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