College Announcements: Northern California

Addie Ahlstrom ('21), Brown

Both of Addie Ahlstrom’s parents played Division I tennis and now she’ll follow in her footsteps as she joins the Brown University tennis team. 

Brown wound up having the right combination of flexible course options, research opportunities, academic independence and a tight-knit team culture that Ahlstrom was looking for. 

“Brown offered me the perfect balance of what I was looking for, and the sense of community I felt while on campus during my visit made me feel welcome and reassured that this place would be an ideal fit for the next four years,” she said. 

She plans on majoring in Political Science to set her up to pursue a degree in law after college. 

“All of that could change in the next couple years though, and I’m excited to take a wide variety of classes at Brown to truly figure out where my strengths and interests lie,” Ahlstrom said. 

She’s also looking forward to helping Brown win an Ivy League title. 

"The thing I’m most looking forward to about college tennis is to be immersed in an intense training environment with many opportunities to compete, especially as a team. I love the atmosphere of playing on a team and I feel it brings the best out of my game, so I couldn’t be more excited for what the fall will bring!"

Audrey-Marie Rafolo ('21), Dominican

Audrey-Marie Rafols grew up with a tennis court in her backyard, paving an early path for her tennis journey which will continue at Dominican University. 

By the winter of her junior year of high school Rafols was getting responses from coaches and kept going on visits of her own and communicating. 

In October of last year she was actually able to visit Dominican and watch a practice, which gave her a better feel for the team and the campus. 

Initially Rafolo was looking at Division I schools with an eye on something in the medical field but it became more important to her to find a nursing program because of her father, who is a nurse. On top of that, Dominican had multiple team members pursuing nursing degrees and that gave her confidence she’d be able to work with the team while studying for such a demanding major. 

Check out our IG Live with Rafolo here! 

Yuu Ishikawa ('21), Williams College

A native of Japan who started playing tennis in Sweden and is now studying abroad there, Yuu Ishikawa’s path to Williams College was more adventurous than most college recruits. 

She and her family moved to the United States when she was eight after two and a half years in Sweden and another year in Japan. She grew up playing in NorCal but on the advice of her mother, who did a study abroad program in America when she was in high school, Ishikawa decided to do the same. 

She’s been in Sweden for the last eight months, coming full circle and even meeting her first tennis coach again. 

“I’m an only child back home and now I have three brothers and a sister,” she said. “And we get along really, really great.”

After being forced to sit out an extended period with an injury, Ishikawa thought her window to play college tennis had closed but at her dad’s suggestion she reached out to Division III coaches. She wound up getting an unexpected amount of responses as she was boarding her flight to Sweden and realized college tennis was still a possibility. 

Check out our IG Live with Ishikawa here! 

Bennet Gazor ('21), Dickinson College

Bennet Gazor has been ingrained and connected in the NorCal community throughout his junior career and after a thoughtful recruiting process, has decided to continue playing at Dickinson College in the fall. 

Playing things like junior team tennis made Gazor realize that the team environment was one of the most important aspects he was looking for and ultimately decided that at the Division III level, Dickinson provides that. 

“I narrowed it down to wanting a small school because I really cherish closer relationships,” Gazor explained. 

He was also cognizant of how important it was to find a good academic fit given how difficult it is to play professionally after college. 

“My number one goal with recruiting was to have tennis help me get into the best academic school possible,” he said. “

Check out our IG Live with Gazor here! 

Brett Miller ('21), Occidental

After helping Amador Valley High School to an undefeated season in 2021, Brett Miller is heading to Occidental in the fall. 

Despite less practice than they would have in a usual season due to sharing courts with two other teams and needing to stay socially distant, Miller and Amador Valley were able to extend an undefeated streak that goes back to his sophomore season. 

Miller made a recruitment video that he sent off to schools but Occidental actually wasn’t one of the initial places he sent it to. 

He later got a letter from Occidental that he almost threw away thinking it was just another mailer from a university before realizing the address was the Occidental athletic department. Miller had only decided to play tennis full time after his sophomore year of high school and some concerns that he was getting into the recruiting cycle too late. 

“So I started talking to the coach and it ended up working out great,” he said. 

Check out our IG Live with Miller here! 

Mirabelle Brettkelly ('21), Yale

Five star recruit and top 50 ranked junior Mirabelle Brettkelly is heading to Yale this fall after a successful run in NorCal. 

Brettkelly has won multiple Level 3 titles, including one in March in addition to competing in Winter Nationals, National Indoors, Clays and the Easter Bowl. Brettkelly is also the co-chair of the Youth Tennis Coalition SF. 

Outside of tennis, Brettkelly is passionate about raising awareness of and advocating for people with physical and mental disabilities. As early as middle school, she became interested in activism when she noticed not much was taught about them. 

Daisy Maunupau ('21), UC Davis

Tennis is a family business for the Maunupaus so it’s no surprise that Daisy Maunupau will be continuing her tennis career in college. The Lick-Wilmerding High School product will be playing for UC Davis this fall. 

Both of Maunupau’s parents play and work in tennis and Daisy’s sister, Olive, will be a sophomore on the UC Davis tennis team for 2021-22 season. With both playing things like junior tournaments and team tennis at the same time, that led to lots of family time on tennis trips.

“From (the time) I was able to physically hold a racquet, that’s how long I’ve been playing for,” she said. 

Maunupau, who also played varsity basketball, has played women’s open and junior tournaments over the past several years. 

She’s also an involved volunteer having been named the Lexus Volunteer Award Recipient by Cal-Hi Sports for her work with the San Francisco Parks and Rec department. 

Check out our IG Live with Maunupau here! 

Tyler Plants ('21), St. John's

With both of his parents being big tennis fans, it was only a matter of time before Tyler Plants picked up tennis but it wound up being only a few years. Plants first held a racket when he was four-years old and now the St. Ignatius senior is heading to St. John’s University in New York. 

Plants has played in a plethora of USTA NorCal competitions including Sectionals, Excellence, championship tournaments and Junior Team Tennis. Playing at Golden Gate Park introduced him to a group who played JTT. 

COVID-19 restrictions made recruiting difficult enough in 2020 but Plants also had to endure a 

Anika Arora ('21), Cal Tech

Anika Arora started playing competitively after watching her older brother and father play tennis when she was growing up. The Mission San Jose High School product has played herself into a spot on the California Institute of Technology team but tennis has been just one part of her high school experience. 

Arora has written for her high school newspaper since her sophomore year and is now the sports editor for the paper. In addition, she’s an officer of a club called Girls Who Code that teaches computer science and coding. 

Her connection with CalTech came about early on when their head coach saw Arora play at Sectionals in Fremont. 

“She happened to be watching my first round match and my dad just happened to be sitting next to her,” Arora said. “They kind of talked throughout my match and afterwards, since I was a sophomore at the time so there were no rules prohibiting me from talking to her, I introduced myself and we kept in touch from then on.”

She talked to more schools starting her junior year but always knew she wanted to go to the 

Maddi Page ('21), UC Davis

Maddi Page played several sports growing up but tennis was one that didn’t initially take with her. 

When she was young, she started playing tournaments and though that experience soured her for a few years, she returned at the age of 10 and has been playing ever since. 

Page will join UC Davis in the fall after building herself into a three-star recruit with a resume that includes reaching the final of a girls 18s singles championship in February of 2020 and winning an L3 doubles title with Addie Ahlstrom in which the pair defeated the numbers one, three, and four seeds. 

Page said she started emailing college coaches as soon as the recruitment period opened but just missed being able to take an official visit to Davis. She was playing in a tournament near Davis at the time and texted UC Davis Head Coach Bill Maze, who watched her play and 

Kate Sexton ('21), Saint Louis University

Kate Sexton grew up playing in Sacramento and Northern California but a family connection in Missouri is part of what pulled her away to continue her tennis journey 

Her grandparents used to live two minutes from SLU's campus and always told her how much they liked the area. As has become customary for the class of 2021, she had to commit before physically seeing the campus but when Sexton visited for the first time herself, she was blown away by the SLU campus. 

"I was really happy with the campus and everything there," she said after visiting. "It's beautiful."

Though she had concerns about losing the opportunity to play more tournaments before the recruiting process due to the pandemic, Sexton also saw the positives in being able to spend more time researching teams and schools which ultimately led her to SLU. 

Luke Neal ('21), Yale

Luke Neal was just over three years old when his mother started bringing him to the club where she played tennis and he quickly followed in her footsteps onto the court with a foam ball and racket hitting against the wall.

He hit the ground running after that and his career hit a turning point when he made the quarters of a tournament as an unseeded player. Neal went on to win a USTA National Level 2 Championship and become a top ranked junior, opening his mind to the possibility of playing in college. 

Jess Alsola ('21), Cal

Jess Alsola’s tennis journey began all the way in the Philippines when she was five-years old. The next step of her tennis journey is taking place all the way across the world though as Alsola will join the Cal Bears this fall. 

She’s won her fair share of tournaments but her favorite memory is still from when she was 10-years old. 

“I played in what was called a ‘one-point tournament,’” she recalls. “It was exactly as it sounds. You would play one point, then move onto the next opponent. I ended up winning the whole thing and getting a Best Buy gift card, so that was pretty great.”

Alsola has kept up her winning ways since then to put herself in a position to join a Division 1 

Brian Bilsey ('21), Notre Dame

Brian Bilsey once gave out an autograph when he was 12-years old and that signature has ticked up in value a bit now that the Belmont High School product is on his way to Notre Dame. 

Bilsey originally planned on sticking on the west coast for school but throughout this search, Notre Dame’s athletics and academics stood out. 

“I think a lot of times when I’m practicing I’m trying to improve a lot more than I’m trying to 

Eliza Bates ('21), Cal Poly

Eliza Bates, a four-star recruit from Acalanes High School, is keeping her talents in state this fall and will be playing for Cal Poly. 

Bates won the CIF North Coast Section singles title in 2019, the first girl in the history of Acalanes to do so. She won a girls 18s Doubles Excellence championship in 2019 and has competed at the national level at Hardcourts, Winter Nationals, and Clays. 

She’s most looking forward to the team environment in college, something she enjoyed in other sports before she switched to tennis full time and missed without a 2020 season.

Kate Lee ('21), Navy

Kate Lee is a four-star recruit headed to the U.S. Naval Academy in the fall. 

Like many other high schoolers transitioning to the next level, she’s been in contact with Navy coaches since last year but wasn’t able to visit the campus outside of watching videos on
Youtube. 

“When I was starting in high school I had no idea I would ever look to go to a military academy,” she said. “But then starting my junior year I was introduced to the idea of going to a military academy.” 

Geoffrey Golan ('21), Bowdoin College

It’s no wonder Geoffrey Golan has stuck with tennis as long as he has. Winning the first tournament you enter is plenty of incentive to keep coming back. 

“I won the finals match and when I walked off my mom was like ‘You won!’” Golan smiles. “And I remember thinking ‘That was the finals?’”

That win spurred Golan’s tennis journey and now he’s headed to play at the next level at Bowdoin College for the fall. 

Bowdoin was the first school to reach out to Golan and the first he visited when his recruitment opened. Though Golan hadn’t done much research on his own yet, the more he narrowed down his preferences to a smaller school and a location on the east coast, the more Bowdoin stood out. 

Golan is a four star recruit in the 2021 class who helped Bellarmine Prep defeat Menlo for the 2019 Central Coast Section team title. Golan also won a super series event in February before the coronavirus pandemic. 

Check out our IG Live with Golan here!

Arushi Malik ('21), Claremont-Scripps-Mudd

While Arushi Malik quickly realized during her junior year that collegiate tennis was a possibility, she was forced to make her final decision under less than ideal circumstances. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Malik wasn’t able to take any official visits in the fall of 2020. When she gets to the campus of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in Claremont, Calif. this fall, it will be the first time she’s seen the campus outside of a Youtube video. 

The more the recruitment process went on though, the more Malik was drawn to the blend of academics and successful Division III program at CMS along with her desire to stay in California. Because Malik has already started to think ahead about her college journey, she’ll have the academic freedom to explore a potential major in computer science while being able to play tennis at the next level. 

"Being a part of the team," Malik said she's looking forward to the most. "I really like the team setting and that's something you really get to experience in college. I've always thought it would be really fun and exciting to go around and travel and compete along with a team."

Malik is a four-star recruit in her class and has reached the quarterfinals of every tournament she’s played in 2020. 

Check out our IG Live with Malik here! 

Brian Chong ('21), Brown

Brian Chong is on his way to Brown University this fall but few high school athletes had their recruiting process upended by the COVID-19 pandemic the way Chong’s was. 

Chong verbally committed to Brown in January 2020 but it wasn’t long after that the pandemic began to take its toll on college athletics and men’s tennis programs across the country felt the impact throughout the year. 

Soon after the first shutdowns and quarantines began in March of 2020, Chong found his texts and phone calls to coaches going unanswered and he later learned both the head and assistant coaches at Brown had retired. 

Chong scrambled to contact other Ivy League schools and anyone who was still recruiting but where he really wanted to go was Brown.

Claire Galerkin ('21), UC Davis

Claire Galerkin remembers exactly when her tennis journey really began. 

When she was nine, Galerkin played a novice tournament at the Fremont Tennis Center. 

“I remember it because I played well that one tournament at the Fremont Tennis Center and since then I’ve had the worst luck at the Fremont Tennis Center,” she smiles. 

It’s been more than luck that’s carried Galerkin since then though and in the fall, she’ll join the women’s team at UC Davis. 

Muskan Mahajan ('20), Boston College

Muskan Mahajan first began playing tennis around the age of six, when her father started feeding her tennis balls in the parking lot after school. After less-than-successful attempts to learn to swim and dance, Mahajan’s father noticed her good hand-eye coordination with a racquet, starting her on a path through junior tennis. 

That path will continue this fall when Mahajan attends Boston College. 

Mahajan has already been playing for over a decade and maintained either Five Star or Blue Chip status the last several years. In 2019 Mahahan advanced to the quarterfinals of the USTA National Winter Championships and has since played more prize money tournaments at the $15,000 and above level. 

Wanting to play more tournaments before college, Mahajan decided to take a gap year after her high school graduation in June 2020 - a decision that wound up being fortiutous with collegiate sports on hold for much of that year. And despite local shutdowns, Mahajan was able to work on her fitness and other aspects of her game during her gap year. 

Though Boston College is across the country, it's a move Mahajan sought out and will be joining some familiar NorCal faces. Outside of tennis, she's considering going into finance. 

Be sure to check out our IG Live with Muskan! 

Luke Casper ('21), Texas A&M

Luke Casper has been playing tennis since he was three years old but when you come from a tennis family like the Caspers, three years old doesn’t sound so far fetched. 

Luke’s father, Mark, played collegiate tennis at Santa Clara University and all seven of the Casper children have taken up the sport. 

Now Luke, a Bellarmine Prep senior, is the latest Casper to commit to playing at the next level as the highly-ranked national recruit is set to attend Texas A&M University in the fall. 

Casper got an early jump on the recruiting process, taking his official visits in the fall of 2019 which wound up being fortuitous when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020. 

Ultimately, Casper found himself stuck deciding between three schools that each had their positives but it was the coaching staff at Texas A&M that won him over. 

“They kind of treated me like family,” Casper says. “I just think they’re going to help me improve in tennis and life.” 

Be sure to check our IG Live with Luke! 

Connie Ma ('21), Stanford

For Connie Ma, it was important to keep an open mind throughout the college recruitment process. 

The decision was never really a difficult one though and in the fall, Ma's dream of attending Stanford and playing for the 20-time NCAA champions will be realized. 

Karl Lee ('21), UCLA

Karl Lee first began playing tennis by hitting to himself against a wall to try to imitate his older sister. That dedication when he was six years old has only grown. In the fall, Lee will attend UCLA on the way to what he hopes will be a professional career. 

Lee has a long track record as a successful junior player, winning the prestigious Zimmerman/Johnson National Championship in the Boys 14s singles and three major doubles titles in the Boys 12s at Winter Nationals, the Easter Bowl, and Hard Courts.