Without its court two singles anchor, the Cal men’s tennis team will have to switch up its lineup before playing against Pacific this weekend.
This Saturday at the Hellman Tennis Complex, the Bears will play without senior co-captain Christoffer Konigsfeldt, who normally plays on court two in singles and on court three in doubles with sophomore Gregory Bayane.
From Feb. 1 to 3, Konigsfeldt will be in Romania representing Denmark at the ITF Davis Cup, the largest international team competition for men’s tennis.
Despite having to move around the team lineup to adjust for the absence of the senior, coach Peter Wright does not see that as a problem. Cal has the ability to switch out players when needed because of the depth of the overall team.
“We’ll be down a man this week,” Wright said. “But we’re going to be doing a lot to prepare to play against a pretty solid UoP team without Chris.”
Last weekend, the Bears (2-0) narrowly won their match against No. 20 Michigan, 4-3, to receive a bid to the ITA National men’s team Indoor Championship for the second year in a row.
Konigsfeldt played an integral role in helping the Bears clinch that victory, coming back from a lost set and a 4-1 deficit in the second set to gain a much-needed victory.
This Saturday at 10 a.m., No. 13 Cal will replace Konigsfeldt with a sixth member who will instead compete at the No. 6 court in singles.
The unnamed member will play alongside the McLachlan brothers, who are ranked No. 7 in doubles nationally and who top the regional rankings.
“We have a strong group of guys, and we’re prepared for cases like this, where someone may be gone due to an injury or whatnot,” Wright said. “They’ll cover for him.”
On paper, the unranked Tigers do not present the Bears with competition comparable to that of last week or the week after, when the Bears will play No. 2 USC and No. 3 UCLA.
However, Cal will not underestimate a steadily improving Pacific squad (3-1).
The Tigers feature senior Alex Golding, who is ranked No. 13 regionally in singles. The team also boasts the doubles pair of Golding and sophomore Alex Hamilton, ranked No. 7 regionally.
The squad is coming off a two-win weekend, knocking off UC Davis and San Francisco in back-to-back matches.
“Even though (Pacific) isn’t ranked right now, they will be by the end of the year,” Wright said. “The level of competition will be very high this week.”
Despite the looming USC and UCLA matches, the Bears have been focused on preparing with a different lineup for the Saturday match. Cal aims to showcase its strength across the courts with the team competing sans Konigsfeldt.
According to Wright, the Bears have been preparing to play against the best.
“It’s hard to know how we’ll do this weekend,” Wright said. “We’re missing one of our top players, but I think our other guys are definitely ready to take over.”
Janice Chua covers men’s tennis. Contact her at [email protected]