Last week, Cal coach Peter Wright predicted that his team would hit its stride this week.
And he was right.
The Cal men’s tennis team pulled off a monumental upset of No. 4 Duke this Sunday, 4-3, proving that it deserves to return to the nation’s top 16. It was the first time this year that the Bears conquered a top-10 team.
“We’ve played against top teams in the country and have come close,” Wright said. “But this time, we actually broke through, and for our team, it was extremely important that we finished first today.”
The No. 24 Bears (7-5) garnered a critical advantage after clinching the doubles point to start off play at the Hellman Tennis Complex this past Sunday.
Although the Blue Devils (12-3) took the lead on all three courts at the start of the doubles round, the Bears made a quick turnaround, fighting back to stay within one point of their opponent.
After Duke won on the top court and Cal took the third court, the winner of the doubles match came down to the result of court two, where the points went back and forth until the score was 8-8 to force a tiebreaker.
On match point, Ben McLachlan swiftly hit a serve that the No. 9 Duke pair of Michael Redlicki and Jason Tahir could not return, 9-8(5), giving the Bears the 1-0 advantage.
In singles, Cal notched four of the first six sets to extend its lead over Duke on the first four courts.
On court two, neither Christoffer Konigsfeldt nor Duke’s Fred Saba could break the other’s serve, resulting in an intense back-and-forth affair between the two for the first and second sets. But when Saba returned the ball straight into the net on match point, Konigsfeldt notched the Bears’ second point.
Once Campbell Johnson finally seized his two-set win after a long 16-point tiebreaker, the Bears only needed one more point to clinch the match.
On the top court, although McLachlan dominated the first set, No. 9 Cunha’s serves were too strong in the second and third sets. Cunha aimed his shots so that McLachlan was running back andforth from one side of the court to the other.
Although he fought back with his own aces in serves, McLachlan eventually dropped a close three-set match when he could not break Cunha’s serve, 7-6, 4-6, 4-6.
The results came down to Bayane’s matchup against Blue Devil Chris Mengel on court four. During the third set, Bayane was down several match points, but he fought back to stay in the game, keeping the score evenly matched. Finally after a third match point, Bayane sealed the Bears’ victory by knocking a drop shot Mengel could not reach to return, 6-1, 5-7, 7-4(4).
“I knew the guy had a weaker forehand, so I had to push on it during those critical moments,” Bayane said. “It was a great feeling to finally win that point.”
The win was crucial for the Bears’ confidence going into the rest of the season, in which the Bears will be battling top-20 teams.
“Mentally, it was an important matchup for our guys,” Wright said. “There’s a big difference between coming close and winning, but we needed this win today.”
Janice Chua covers men’s tennis. Contact her at [email protected].