SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – UC Santa Barbara Women's Tennis has announced the signings of two transfers—Cara Mester from Oklahoma and Shachf Lieberman from Texas.
"We're thrilled to welcome Cara to our team," head coach
Simon Thibodeau said. "As a strong lefty who played for a top program like Oklahoma and recently won a $15K ITF title in doubles, she's going to make an immediate impact on our team. Only a sophomore, her competitive spirit and dedication will be an inspiring addition."
As a freshman with the Sooners in spring 2025, Mester finished 4-3 in doubles—all on court one—with four of those matches against nationally-ranked opponents. In her first doubles match, 28th-ranked Mester-Shcherbinina defeated Tulsa's 26th-ranked Hutchings-Berlanga, 6-3. Later, against No. 14 Cal, Mester-Shcherbinina won the deciding doubles match via tiebreak en route to the team's 4-1 victory. Oklahoma finished the year ranked 10th in the ITA Team rankings.
The tournament win that Thibodeau is alluding to came just last weekend in Mester's home country of Romania. At the W15 Focsani hosted by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), Mester and compatriot Vanessa Ioana Georgiana Popa Teiusanu teamed up to win the doubles draw on clay, dropping just one set across four matches. It was Mester's second ITF victory after coming back to win the W15 Bucharest in May 2024.
"We're also excited to have Shachf, from Israel," Thibodeau added. "She transfers to us from Texas, where she was part of a top, nationally-ranked program. She brings a wealth of experience, maturity, and solid level of play to our team, and we're very excited to have her on board."
Lieberman finished her sophomore year 4-3 overall in singles matches, including appearances against SEC opponents No. 18 Tennessee, Missouri, No. 49 Ole Miss, and No. 42 Kentucky. She competed for a Longhorn team that advanced to the Super Regionals at No. 3 Michigan and ended the year ranked 13th in the ITA Team rankings.
As a freshman in spring 2024, Lieberman went 7-4 in singles, with one of those wins clinching the team's NCAA First Round victory over No. 42 Harvard. She had similar success in doubles play, finishing 7-5 with partner Taisiya Pachkaleva and, most notably, helping the Longhorns win the doubles point in their match against No. 1 Oklahoma State.
Mester and Lieberman join a Gaucho program that just finished 17-9 overall, reaching the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The Gauchos went 9-0 in their Big West schedule—undefeated in conference play for the fourth time in the last five seasons—before winning the Big West Championship.
