California Team Page
FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y./TEMPE, Ariz. - California's Zsofi Susanyi and Anett Schutting each won a pair of singles matches to advance to advance to the singles semifinals at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships on Friday at the USTA Billie Jean National King Tennis Center in New York.
Susanyi - a sophomore ranked fifth in the nation - knocked off Stanford's sixth-ranked and top-seeded Lauren Embree, 6-1, 6-1, in the round of 16 to advance to the quarterfinals. She then beat USC's Sabrina Santamaria, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, to reach Saturday's semifinal against UCLA's fifth-seeded and third-ranked Robin Anderson.
Schutting, a junior, prevailed in a bit of an upset in the round of 16, with the 22nd-ranked Golden Bear beating 11th-ranked Danielle Lao of USC, 7-6 (6), 7-5. In the quarterfinals, she beat Duke's sixth-seeded and 35th-ranked Hannah Mar, 6-2, 6-1, to set up a semifinal match against Florida's Sofie Oyen on Saturday.
A Cal contingent also competed in the ASU Thunderbird Invitational on Friday in Tempe, with four Bears in singles and one pair in doubles reaching the next round after the first day of the tournament.
In the doubles main draw, the Cal pair of senior Tayler Davis and freshman Klara Fabikova defeated Ohio State's Fidan Manashirova and Kara Cecil, 8-3, Bears Lynn Chi and Alice Duranteau fell to Michigan's Kristy Dodge-Ronit Yurovsky, 9-8 (5), and Cal's Laura Posylkin-Kelly Chui lost to Kansas State's Ivana Kubickova-Carli Wischoff, 8-3.
After a first-round bye in the single main draw in Tempe, Cal's top-seeded Davis beat Ohio State's Nikki Flower, 6-1, 6-2, to reach Saturday's semifinal against Michigan's Yurovsky. The latter defeated Cal's Posylkin, a sophomore, in the round of 32, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
Fabikova and Duranteau each won all their Friday matches to set up an all-Cal quarterfinal between the teammates on Saturday. Fabikova, the fourth seed, had a first-round bye and then beat Kansas State's Ivana Kubickova, 7-6 (3), 6-3. Duranteau, a junior, won twice, first against San Diego's Idil Haciraifoglu, 6-1, 6-2, and then over Arizona State's Leighann Sahagun, 7-6 (5), 7-3.
Cal's second-seeded Chi, a freshman, had a first-round bye and then defeated Michigan's Dodge, 6-1, 6-2, to move into a Saturday quarterfinal with ASU's Stephanie Vlad.
Another potential all-Bear quarterfinal never materialized. Chui - a junior who blanked USD's Alexandra Victorsson, 6-0, 6-0, in the round of 32 - dropped a round of 16 match to Michigan's third-seeded Mimi Nguyen 6-3, 7-5. On the other side of the bracket, Cal sophomore Cecilia Estlander also won her first match - beating BYU's Meghan Sheehan-Dizon, 6-1, 6-3 - but lost to ASU's Desirae Krawczyk, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round.
Estlander's loss in the second round moved her into the Maroon draw consolation bracket, in which she will face Ohio State's Manashirova on Saturday. Posylkin's first-round loss moved her into the Sparky consolation bracket, in which she fell to ASU's Joanna Smith, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.
Posylkin then moved into the Sparky consolation back draw and will now play USD's Haciraifoglu in one semifinal on Saturday.