The Cal men’s tennis team faced a Sweet 16 exit at the NCAA Championships, but its top doubles team still managed to leave a lasting impression on the opponents.
In a tiebreak triumph against Tennessee, Nick Andrews and Christoffer Konigsfeldt toppled the nation’s top-ranked tandem to clinch the doubles point — a potential sign of even bigger things to come in 2011-2012.
The duo failed to overturn every other ranked opponent before that monumental upset, but nonetheless cemented themselves at the top of the Cal doubles lineup this past year through a series of subtle strides.
After a year of overwhelming second-court victories against unranked opponents, the pair entered the 2010-2011 season on a six-match winning streak that culminated in the USTA/ITA Northwest Regionals Championship crown and an automatic draw in the Indoor Championships.
And that was just the fall season.
With Cal suffering through four dual match defeats to open the spring season before gaining a doubles point, head coach Peter Wright needed to tweak lineups halfway through the season — however, with the most experience together of any doubles team, Andrews and Konigsfeldt were always a lock. After playing together for an entire year, they didn’t have to worry about working out major kinks; they ran like a well-oiled machine, each in tune with one another even when under pressure.
Andrews and Konigsfeldt overpowered the best that teams like No. 12 Duke and No. 11 UCLA could offer and clinched eight of the Bears’ 12 doubles points. Still, the duo’s results were erratic. A four-match win streak was crippled by two straight losses at the end of the regular season, and the underdog miracle versus Tennessee was diminished somewhat a week later by a loss in the very first round of the NCAA Doubles Championships.
While the past season showed promise, Andrews and Konigsfeldt will need to hold their ground against every opponent — nregardless of rank — as they set their sights on an even more successful run next year.
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