When a player has the opportunity to deliver the perfect smash shot during a match, he is almost always guaranteed to win the point.
Such was the case for the Cal men’s tennis team this weekend, which smashed its way to a 5-2 victory against Pacific.
On Saturday at the Hellman Tennis Complex, the No. 13 Bears (3-0) took advantage of the Tigers’ (3-2) unsuccessful lobs, gaining several game points by slamming the ball high across the court. Although Cal competed without senior co-captain Christoffer
Konigsfeldt, who was away in Romania playing at the Davis Cup, the different lineup of the Bears held its own.
“UoP is a very competitive team,” said head coach Peter Wright. “They’re actually one of the top teams in the Bay Area, but I think we had solid physical performances from all of our guys today.”
In doubles, the seventh-ranked duo of Ben and Riki McLachlan swiftly defeated Pacific’s Alex Golding and Sem Verbeek, 8-1, on the top court. The brothers from New Zealand rapidly fired shots where the Tigers could not reach. On match point, Riki McLachlan lobbed the ball in the right corner of the court past Verbeek to clinch their first match of the day.
“Ben is certainly seeing the ball well, and the McLachlan brothers are holding the team up in the absence of Chris,” Wright said. “They’re a constant force on our lineup.”
On court two, the Cal pair of junior Campbell Johnson and freshman Mads Engsted bested Tigers Denis Stolyarov and Trevor James with an 8-3 victory, winning the doubles point.
Ben McLachlan once again started off singles with a win against Golding, 6-3, 6-3, on the top court. Golding could not break McLachlan’s serve, and eventually lost when he returned the ball too low into the net. Engsted followed suit four courts over with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Pacific’s Daniel Alameh.
Although Melton lost his singles match on court six, the Bears only needed one more point to clinch the overall match. On court three, Johnson easily notched his first set against Pacific’s Ben Mirkin, 6-3. However, in the second set, Mirkin found his rhythm and the two rallied back-and-forth until the score was 5-4 with Cal in the lead.
On match point, Mirkin lobbed the ball high into the air. Johnson smashed the ball into the left side of the court to clinch the match for the Bears.
“His opponent was a tricky guy to play with who had a lot of different spins and looks on the ball,” Wright said. “But Campbell managed to persevere and fight through it to win the match for us.”
By taking advantage of the Tigers’ several lobbed shots, Cal came out victorious to remain undefeated in its dual match season. The
Bears will prepare this week to face off against two top-10 teams in the same weekend — No. 2 USC and No. 3 UCLA.
“This was a good match to get under our belts before we head down,” Wright said. “It gave us a little bit of experience and it’s keeping the guys on edge.”
Janice Chua covers men’s tennis. Contact her at [email protected].