The Cal men’s tennis team failed to take home even one win from the NCAA singles and doubles championships this past week.
But the Bears did not leave Urbana, Ill., feeling discouraged.
With Cal’s season now over, the Bears are left instead with a bittersweet feeling. Although Cal concluded its year with a short run at the NCAA individual tournaments, the Bears battled their injury-ridden season with an overall respectable run at the NCAAs.
“It’s a terrible feeling once the season’s over, but I think our guys left it out on the courts this whole time in Illinois,” said Cal coach Peter Wright. “It’s incredibly gratifying as to how we finished the year.”
Juniors Ben McLachlan and Campbell Johnson kicked off play in the NCAA singles championship last Wednesday at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex at the Atkins Tennis Center.
McLachlan went head-to-head against Ohio State’s No. 12 Blaz Rola, while Johnson took on Oklahoma’s Guillermo Alcorta.
Rola swiftly notched the first set against McLachlan, 6-2, and the two battled back and forth during the second set before a thunderstorm forced a rain delay for all outdoor matches.
McLachlan was serving at 3-1 when the officials moved his match indoors, but the Cal junior from New Zealand ultimately fell in a tough second-set tiebreaker, 7-6(4), to yield the match to Rola.
Johnson was down three games in the middle of his first set when the rain delay stopped his match. However he eventually fell, also in two sets, to Alcorta in the round of 64.
“It was pretty windy outside today, which made conditions harder for both of us,” McLachlan said. “I thought the quality of the match was pretty good. I wasn’t disappointed with my match. I had my chances.”
In the first round of the NCAA doubles tournament on Thursday, Cal’s top doubles duo of Johnson and senior co-captain Christoffer Konigsfeldt battled the sixth-ranked tandem in the country — Auburn’s Daniel Cochran and Andreas Mies.
The two teams could not break the opponent’s serve to start off the match. However, in the fourth game, the Bears got broken when Cochran and Mies found opportunities to smash lobbed balls and hit wide shots that Cal’s Johnson and Konigsfeldt could not return.
The Bears broke back and were able to notch three consecutive games, but Cal was once again broken and ultimately lost the first set, 5-7.
In the second set, the Bears had trouble keeping up with the strategic Auburn duo, which found ways to throw shots in areas Cal could not reach. The Bears eventually fell when Konigsfeldt returned Auburn’s serve into the net on match point, 1-6.
“It was a tough match but a good experience,” Konigsfeldt said. “They played well.”
Although none of the three Bears who competed in the NCAA singles and doubles tournaments could bring home a win, Wright is proud of the way his team ended the season — with a third consecutive trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 and individual championships.
“Our time in Illinois, our trip to Florida — the guys even had to take their final exams while they were here — they’ve faced a lot of adversity, but I’m proud of how they handled not only the NCAA championships but this entire season,” Wright said.
Janice Chua covers men’s tennis. Contact her at [email protected].