The Cal men’s tennis team seems to have Lady Luck on its side this year.
Out of all the first- and second-round brackets the Bears could have been placed in for the NCAA team championships, the Cal squad was selected to compete in a bracket where it had already defeated the top seed, No. 15 Florida, earlier this season.
On Feb. 16, the Bears battled then-No. 11 Florida at the ITA National Indoor Championships in Seattle. After notching the first point with a swift win in doubles, Cal dominated the upper half of the lineup to eventually clinch a 4-1 victory over the Gators.
This weekend, Florida will host Denver, Florida State and the No. 18 Bears (14-9) at the Linder Stadium at the Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville, Fla.
In the first round of the tournament on Friday, the Bears will take on Florida State while the Gators battle unranked Denver at 10 a.m.
If Cal can surpass the first round, it will compete against the victor of the Florida-Denver matchup on Saturday. And with Denver boasting only one ranked singles player in senior Enej Bonin, the Bears will most likely take on the top-seeded Gators for the second time this year.
“I think we definitely have a good chance,” said senior co-captain Christoffer Konigsfeldt. “We beat (Florida) earlier this season, so we know that we can beat them now — I’m pretty happy with the draw.”
Cal cannot look forward to exploiting its bracket luck in a second meeting with Florida until the squad defeats an underrated Florida State team, however.
The Cal squad holds a significant by-the-numbers advantage over the Seminoles.
The Bears feature three ranked singles players, led by junior Ben McLachlan on the top court. The team also boasts three ranked doubles duos, spearheaded by the Cal pair of Konigsfeldt and junior Campbell Johnson on court No. 1.
But according to Cal coach Peter Wright, topping Florida State will not be an easy task for the Bears. Despite their dearth in ranked players, the Seminoles have claimed several come-from-behind victories this year, including two upsets over nationally ranked top-25 teams.
On March 1, the Seminoles conquered No. 21 Texas for the first time in their program’s history. Two weeks later, Florida State defeated No. 14 Oklahoma in a close 4-3 victory.
“Florida State is a very gritty team — their guys fight really hard and they’re tough,” Wright said. “We’ve seen them in action at some tournaments, and I think they might be a little underrated in terms of what their ranking is.”
If the Bears can make it past these first two rounds, they will progress to the NCAA round of 16 for the third year in a row. But advancing to the sweet 16 has never been a simple feat for the Bears.
Just take the past two years, when Cal pulled two 4-3 clutch victories to advance to the round of 16. Although the Bears got lucky in their bracket selection this postseason, breezing through the first and second rounds has never been an option for the Bears — and that won’t change this year.
“They’re going to be really tough matches for us for sure,” Konigsfeldt said. “But then again, it’s the NCAA tournament. Nothing is easy.”
Janice Chua covers men’s tennis. Contact her at [email protected].