The Georgia Bulldogs have a West Coast competitor to look out for.

At Cal's own Land Rover Napa Valley Tennis Classic, the men's tennis team dominated play against defending national champion Georgia, Illinois and Harvard, racking up twenty singles and five doubles wins.

"This is the best year we've ever had at the Napa Valley Classic," coach Peter Wright said. "We've got a lot to be proud of."

The Bears started off strong from day one, with eight singles and two doubles wins on Friday. Newcomer Thai Tu, who went undefeated on the weekend in both singles and doubles play, got his collegiate career off to a good start with a win over Illinois' Jordan Knue in singles and a doubles win with partner Bozhidar Katsarov over Harvard's Alistair Felton and Tim Wu.

"It was a great start," Tu said. "I'm more confident as a college player now."

Day two of the tournament was nearly as successful, as Cal picked up seven singles wins. The Katsarov-Tu duo nabbed another doubles victory as well.

The Bears finished off the weekend with a bang, suffering only two losses as they won five singles matches and two doubles on day three. Freshmen Nick Andrews and Evan Rose finished their weekends undefeated in singles matches with wins over players from Georgia and Illinois.

"We have a great young team with a lot of potential," Wright said.

While Cal may be on the younger side with three-quarters of the team being underclassmen, the squad still managed to come out on top this weekend. Out of the 35 matches they participated in, the Bears lost only 10.

"Every day of the tournament we had a great winning percentage," Wright said. "We have a heavily young team, but they really pulled it off this weekend."

According to Wright, the crowning moment of the tournament was junior Kallim Stewart taking the title of tournament champion after defeating Georgia's All-American Nate Schnugg on Sunday.

"He's the first Cal player to win in eight years," Wright said. "It's a big deal for Kallim and for Cal as well."

Stewart, who finished last season at No. 114 in the nation, was also named to to the 2008 Pac-10 All-Conference Second Team. This weekend, he earned the title after going undefeated in his singles matches and defeating Schnugg.

"I just felt really good," Stewart said. "It had been a good week for me, and after my first match, I was really confident."

He may have taken top tournament honors, but Stewart insists that the Bears' success this weekend was a team effort.

"Cal did the best out of all four teams," Stewart said. "It's more of a team thing than an individual thing."

Wright agrees that the tournament was a huge team achievement and will be something to build off of.

"It was an energizing weekend," Wright said. "It was successful, but it gives us a lot of things to work on."

Tags: PETER WRIGHT, CAL MEN'S TENNIS