Twelve years ago, Cal head coach Peter Wright and Meadowood Tennis Director Doug King started the Napa Valley Tennis Classic.
Since 2001, the Cal men’s tennis team has been hosting the annual tournament at Meadowood Napa Valley resort in St.Helena, Calif. And since 2001, they have been largely dominating it.
This year was no exception.
This past weekend, the Bears competed against the talents of elite USTA junior players, as well as top players from Stanford, Texas, Georgia, Harvard and Illinois. Seniors Christoffer Konigsfeldt and Riki McLachlan, junior Ben McLachlan and freshman Mads Engstad swept most all of their opponents in singles matches, ending with an overall 10-1 record.
“Four of our top members displayed a lot of their strengths this weekend,” said Wright. “We played the best we’ve ever played in this tournament.”
Just two days after the junior national team defeated Cal in a 6-2 upset in singles matches, Riki McLachlan and Engsted clinched singles points against USTA juniors Jack Murray and T.J. Pura, respectively. Ben McLachlan overtook 16-year-old and youngest USTA junior member Deiton Baughman, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, while Konigsfeldt went on to defeat Stanford’s John Morrissey, 6-4, 7-6(6).
Also on Friday, the No. 23 pair of Konigsfeldt and Ben McLachlan topped the Texas duo of Sudanwa Sitaram and Daniel Whitehead, 8-4, while the Engsted and Riki McLachlan dropped the doubles point to Stephen Hoh and Brian Page of Illinois, 8-2.
On Saturday, the Bears continued their domination, extending their perfect singles 4-0 record to 8-0. All four members of the Cal team defeated their opponents in two sets.
“We have an older group that is playing well,” said Wright. “I know the college players are doing a little bit better than the juniors this year, but that’s the natural ebb and flow of this event.”
Last year, Ben McLachlan and then senior Nick Andrews made their way through the singles rounds and proceeding tie-breaker shootout to face each other in the ultimate match of the tournament. After an intense back-and-forth battle between the two Bears, McLachlan lost the tournament final to Andrews, 7-10.
This time around, Ben McLachlan was the first to fall after two sets against eventual runner-up Soren Hess-Olesen of Texas. Konigsfeldt, Riki McLachlan and Engsted all won their group singles matches to move on to the PlayBrave Shootout Quarterfinals; however, despite each posting a perfect singles record, the three Bears were eliminated after dropping their 10-point quarterfinal matches.
Georgia sophomore Nathan Pasha eventually defeated Hess-Olesen, 16-14, during the PlayBrave Shootout Finals to capture the Napa Valley Classic crown.
Although none of the Bears were able to reach the tournament semi-finals this year, each player individually posted outstanding singles records. Cal’s main goal was to gauge its upcoming spring competition and practice for the start of its season. And although the Bears aren’t there yet, as it is just the beginning of the fall preseason, the team is moving along well.
“Winning or losing didn’t ever matter in this tournament,” said Riki McLachlan. “Our goal was just to get a couple of matches under our belts, and we did that and played our best.”
Janice Chua covers men’s tennis. Contact her at [email protected]
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