Oct. 8, 2012

BERKELEY - California continues its busy fall schedule by playing in the Saint Mary's Invitational from Friday, Oct. 12, through Sunday, Oct. 14. The Golden Bears competing in the Moraga, Calif., tournament are juniors Alice Duranteau and Kelly Chui, sophomores Cecilia Estlander and Laura Posylkin, and freshmen Lynn Chi and Klara Fabikova. Duranteau won the White Flight singles title last year at Saint Mary's.

Last Time
The third-ranked duo of Annie Goransson and Anett Schutting won its first Oct. 6 match in the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships, but the Golden Bears dropped their second match in the doubles consolation draw semifinal against Pepperdine, 8-3, to close California's stay at the Riviera Tennis Club.

The second-seeded Cal pair beat the Baylor duo of Ema Burgic-Jordaan Sanford, 8-2, in the quarterfinals. The Bears had a short break before playing the Lions' fourth-seeded and seventh-ranked team of Khunpak Issara and Lorraine Guillermo.

In singles, Oct. 5 proved to be a challenging day for the Golden Bears, as nationally ranked Zsofi Susanyi and Anett Schutting both suffered upsets in the singles main draw at the Riviera Tennis Club.

Fifth-ranked Susanyi, a sophomore who was also the second seed at the tournament, fell to 37th-ranked qualifier Maho Kowase of Georgia, 6-3, 6-1. Schutting, a junior ranked No. 22, lost to Kansas State's 14th-ranked Petra Niedermayerova, 6-4, 6-3, a day after upsetting ninth-ranked and sixth-seeded Emina Bektas of Michigan.

Tayler Davis also competed in the All-American. The senior exited in the second round of the singles qualifying consolation draw after losing to Duke's Mary Clayton, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (6), on Oct. 3.

Last Season at the Saint Mary's Invitational
Then-Cal sophomore Alice Duranteau claimed the White Flight's singles title on a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Sacramento State's Sophie Loscheidt in the 2011 Saint Mary's Invitational on Oct. 16. After she defeated San Jose State's Chau Truong, 6-3, 6-2, in the semifinal, the Golden Bear extended her singles winning streak to nine matches with her victory in the final.

In the Red Flight, then-freshman Cecilia Estlander had her run come to an end when she was defeated in three sets by top-seeded No. 59-ranked Catherine Isip of Saint Mary's. Estlander came up with a 6-4 win in the first set, but Isip replied to win, 6-1, 6-2, in the final two sets.

In the Red singles consolations semifinals, then-senior Stephany Chang fought, tooth and nail, but fell, 7-5, 7-6, with a 7-2 result in the second-set tiebreaker to Kelly Chui then of UC Davis. (A junior for the 2012-13 season, Chui now plays for Cal.)

In a singles consolation round robin match, then-senior Catalina Visico fell, 6-4, 6-0, to Isadora Busch of San Jose State, and in a doubles consolation match, Duranteau teamed with Estlander to face Sacramento State's tandem of Clarisse Baca and Maria Meliuk, but the Cal duo lost, 8-2.

Next Time
Cal competes in the ITA Northwest Regional Championship from Oct. 19-23 in Stanford, Calif.

A Golden Olympics for the Golden Bears
A total of 46 Golden Bear athletes, coaches and staff members represented Cal during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and together, they brought home a school-record-tying 17 medals (11 gold, 1 silver, 5 bronze). The Bears have won 50 medals over the past three Olympics (16 in 2004, 17 in 2008, 17 in 2012), and they have captured 178 medals all-time (99 gold).

Cal No. 1 Public University in the Country
The University of California is the No. 1-ranked public university in the United States, according to U.S. News and World Report. The faculty has won 22 Nobel Prizes, including nine current members, while 28 alumni have received a Nobel Prize. A National Research Council analysis of U.S. universities concluded that the campus has the largest number of highly ranked graduate programs in the country (48 of 52). Cal also has a long commitment to public service, with more than 4,000 students annually doing volunteer work and more than 3,000 Peace Corps participants all-time.