Sports Briefs: Men's Tennis Unable to Get Past No. 17 Fresno State

The Cal men's tennis team suffered a tough 5-2 loss to Fresno State yesterday that was a lot closer than the score indicates.

The No. 22 Bears had to shuffle their lineup with two of their key players still out. Senior Erik Dmytruk-who plays at No. 1 doubles with Scott Kintz-was recovering from the flu, and sophomore Robert Kowalczyk was nursing a sore ankle, though he managed to play doubles.

Freshman Balazs Veress replaced Dmytruk in doubles, teaming up with Kintz at the No. 3 spot. The tandem cruised to the Bears' only doubles victory, an 8-0 blowout of Alex Menichini and Michael Moretti. The No. 17 Bulldogs prevailed in the other two doubles matches, putting Cal at a 0-1 disadvantage heading into singles play.

The Bears responded with a couple early victories in singles. After Cal's Adrian Barnes clinched the first set, 6-3, FSU's David Mullins retired with back problems. At No. 4, Kintz continued his solid play, defeating Nick Fustar, 6-0, 6-4, to remain Cal's lone player undefeated in dual match play this season.

Despite Cal's good start, the rest of the afternoon belonged to the Bulldogs. Hiro Nakamura and Veress fell in straight sets, though both matches could have gone to a third set had either prevailed in the tiebreak. At No. 6, FSU's Alex Krohn managed to hold off Ben Miles, who had come back strong in the second and third sets after a 1-6 first set loss.

With the Bulldogs clinching the victory with Krohn's win, John Paul Fruttero and Peter Luczak played a third set tiebreak with the score notched at 2-2. Luczak prevailed to secure the win at No. 1.

"It's always a challenge with a couple guys out of the lineup, but a lot of (our) guys are playing well," Cal coach Peter Wright said. "We just got beaten today. Their guys came out on a couple courts and were just tougher than we were."

Weather permitting, the Bears will next host St. Mary's and Santa Clara. Play begins Sunday at 9:30am at Hellman Tennis Courts.

No. 4 Bears Welcome No. 3 Card

The Cal women's swimming team's dual-meet season heads for an exciting close this weekend when the Bears host long time Bay Area rival Stanford.

The meet is tomorrow at Spieker Aquatics Complex. Competition begins at 12 p.m.

Both No. 3 Stanford and No. 4 Cal have a 3-1 record in the Pac-10, each team falling to No. 2 Arizona earlier in the season.

While the competition will be fierce, it isn't based on any kind of serious animosity.

"The teams are pretty close around here," senior Haley Cope said. "We're all kind of friends. It's like, 'We're gonna kick your ass-say, how's your boyfriend?'"

Despite suffering from a small roster further hamstrung by numerous injuries, the Bears have bootstrapped their way to an enviable national position.

The road was paved mainly with the talents of freshman Natalie Coughlin. At this point in the season, Coughlin has the nation's top times in the 200-yard freestyle (1 minute, 45.65 seconds), 100 backstroke (52.79), 100 butterfly (52.40) and the 200 fly (1:55.93).

Coughlin also has the second-best times in the 200 individual medley (1:58.35) and 200 back (1:56.33), the third-best time in the 50 free (22.88) and the fourth-best time in the 100 back (54.74).

Stanford brings equally heavy firepower to the meet, featuring senior Misty Hyman, junior Jessica Foschi and freshman Tara Kirk.

Women's Tennis Visit San Diego, San Diego State

The No. 5 Cal women's tennis team looks to rebound from an unexpected and disappointing split against the Washington schools when they head south to take on San Diego State and the University of San Diego this weekend.

The Bears will match up against No. 27 SDSU today at 1:30 p.m. and USD tomorrow at noon.

Today's match will mark the return of Cal senior Anita Kurimay, who has had to endure a lengthy absence from the team's lineup while recovering from leg surgery. Kurimay will pair up with freshman Raquel Kops-Jones at the No. 1 doubles spot.

Cal coach Jan Brogan plans to bring Kurimay, Cal's regular No. 1 singles player, along slowly in order to give her time to get back into playing condition. She will likely return to singles play on Feb. 24 when the Bears play Stanford.

Kops-Jones will once again take Kurimany's place at the No. 1 singles spot. The freshman has struggled at the No. 1 spot of late, with consecutive losses against Washington and WSU. Christina Fusano, Jieun Jacobs, Catherine Lynch, Nicole Havlicek and Sekita Grant round out the top six seeds to form Cal's singles lineup this weekend.

Cal Squash Ready for Stanford

It might not have the tradition of its football counterpart, but the Big Squash means as much to the players who will compete in it this weekend.

The Cal squash club will battle Stanford tomorrow at the DeGuerre Squash Courts in Palo Alto. The Bears will try to keep their streak of five consecutive wins alive against the Cardinal, which has never beaten Cal in the brief history of the event.

If the national squash rankings are any indication, the match should be a close one. Stanford is ranked at No. 28 in the latest rankings, while Cal is close behind at No. 29.

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