The Cal men’s tennis team was on fire in the past few weeks.
The Bears had not lost a dual match in a month, and they entered the Pac-12 Championships riding a five-game win streak.
But Cal couldn’t hold on to its winning streak forever.
As expected, the third-seeded Bears kicked off their postseason this Thursday with a rapid sweep of No. 6 seed Utah, 5-0, in Ojai, Calif.
But second-seeded and No. 5 USC snapped the No. 18 Bears’ six-game win streak the next day with a 4-1 domination of Cal, ending the Bears’ run at the Pac-12 Tournament.
Although Cal’s NCAA seeding will not be finalized until Tuesday afternoon, Cal’s loss to USC (23-3) most likely eliminated any chances the Bears had of hosting the starting rounds of the NCAA Team Championships.
The Cal squad (14-9) already qualified for the NCAAs earlier this season after solidifying a winning percentage greater than .500. But only the top 16 squads in the nation will have a home court advantage for the first and second rounds of the NCAAs.
“It was a tough way to finish off the Pac-12 Championships,” said Cal coach Peter Wright.
After the Bears overtook the Utes (14-12) in doubles on Thursday, Utah fiercely battled back to start off the singles round, taking an early lead in the first set on the first four courts. However, Cal did not let up in singles play, eventually clinching the match with Chase Melton’s two-set win on court No. 6.
According to Wright, the Bears improved in doubles play from Thursday to Friday, playing more aggressively at the net and making better decisions in shot selection. On court No. 3 on Friday, Cal and USC exchanged broken serves back and forth until the Cal duo consisting of sophomores Gregory Bayane and Melton managed to clinch an 8-6 victory.
“We were able to hold serve when it mattered towards the end,” Melton said.
The Bears ultimately seized the doubles point when Cal pair Christoffer Konigsfeldt and Campbell Johnson clinched a tough tiebreaker against USC’s Ray Sarmiento and Yannick Hanfmann, 9-8(7), on the top court.
But the singles round was an entirely different ball game.
The Bears’ one-point lead was short-lived, as the Trojans quickly displayed their dominance by notching four of the first six sets.
Hanfmann rapidly took down Konigsfeldt with his two-set victory on court No. 2.
Over on court No. 4, Bayane struggled to hold serve during break points and missed opportunities to break Trojan Eric Johnson’s serve, eventually conceding USC’s second point, 6-4, 6-4.
“I missed a lot of break points, which made a huge difference,” Bayane said. “It was kind of a bummer; he didn’t really win (the points) — I just gave them to him.”
On court No. 3, Campbell Johnson fought a back-and-forth battle with USC’s Roberto Quiroz until Johnson suffered from a locked knee in the middle of his first set. Johnson later struggled to keep up with Quiroz, eventually yielding the match in two sets, 7-6(7), 6-2, to give the Trojans the 4-1 win.
“Overall, we worked in every match in singles, but we got outplayed in some key situations,” Wright said. “It was tough to end that way, but we’re in a good frame of mind right now, and we’re feeling pretty good about the direction the season’s headed.”
Janice Chua covers men’s tennis. Contact her at [email protected].