The Cal men’s tennis team had one major goal going into this weekend’s Pac-12 doubleheader: improve its doubles play.
On Friday afternoon, the Bears did just that.
No. 21 Cal (10-8, 2-1 in the Pac-12) clinched both doubles points in an eventual weekend sweep against Oregon and Washington. The Bears defeated the Ducks, 4-3, at the UO Student Tennis Center in Eugene, Ore., before traveling to Seattle on Saturday to dominate the Huskies, 5-2.
The team implemented several of the techniques it focused on during the week, including improving its consistency in shot selection. The Bears specifically worked on serving and returning the ball during practice and playing aggressively closer to the net.
“The time we spent working on our doubles this past week was valuable and time well spent,” coach Peter Wright said. “Getting off to that lead gave us a big boost for our confidence going into singles.”
On Friday, the Bears took the 1-0 advantage after the Cal duo of junior Ben McLachlan and freshman Mads Engsted bested Oregon’s Daniel Sardu and Aaron Clissold, 8-3, on court No. 2.
The Bears carried their momentum into the singles round, in which they notched wins in five of the first six sets. However, the Ducks fought back to push the Bears to three sets on four courts.
It took Cal’s top players — McLachlan, Christoffer Konigsfeldt and junior Campbell Johnson — on the first three courts to get the job done.
Senior co-captain Konigsfeldt’s victory over Oregon’s Daan Maasland on court No. 3 clinched the Bears their first road-conference win of the weekend.
“We had a pretty good lead, and then we let it slip away,” Wright said. “We held on, but we had to address some issues in mental discipline on the court, and I think the guys did a great job applying that later in our Saturday match.”
Despite the squad failing to capitalize on its strong start in singles on Friday, Cal made significant improvements in doubles and singles when it battled against the Huskies (15-8, 2-2) on Saturday.
Although the Bears struggled to create separation on the scoreboard to start off the doubles round, Cal took the point once its doubles pairs knocked off their Washington counterparts on courts No. 2 and 3.
On court No. 2 in singles, Johnson swiftly took the first set over Washington’s Martin Bots, 6-2. The two rallied points back and forth during the second set until Bots could not return Johnson’s ball, hitting too far into the alleys on match point to increase Cal’s lead to 3-1.
Konigsfeldt’s win on court No. 3 once again clinched the win for the Bears. Although Konigsfeldt rapidly took the first set, the Huskies’ Max Manthou pushed the second set to a tie-breaker to force a third set. However, Konigsfeldt exploded back in the third set, capturing the win with little resistance.
On match point, Manthou managed to return Konigsfeldt’s drop shot but was forced to lob the ball high into the air. Konigsfeldt ran up to the net to smash the ball to Manthou’s left, helping Cal garner a 2-0 weekend record.
“Playing at the net is my best strategy because I can finish with volleys and overheads,” Konigsfeldt said.
Janice Chua covers men’s tennis. Contact her at [email protected].