Carl Emil Overbeck

The Bears came back from Austin, Texas, with solid results in doubles competition but still much to accomplish to achieve regularity in singles matches.

It is going to be imperative to take control of the points and to dominate the rallies. Whether that is achievable against such a team, though, is a different question.

Routing Saint Mary’s 7-0 Tuesday and narrowly clinching against No. 13 Stanford with 4-3 Friday, this was a big week for the Bears.

This first week back on Hellman Tennis Complex will be a key starting point for a long string of dual matches, especially after starting off on the road.

The blue and gold marked their territory on the historical enemies’ courts and confirmed a productive fall season as one Bear made his run all the way to the final.

Held at the Goldman Tennis Center in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, this tournament welcomed at its earliest stages six Bears. Four of them accessed the round of 16: Lucas Magnaudet, Sean Hill, Yuta Kikuchi and Alex Chang, the latter convincingly beating Daniel Cardiff, 6-4, 6-0.

In college tennis, athletes play individually, but most of the time are still fighting for their team. This was fully on display over the past few weeks, as the Cal men’s tennis players have been busy traveling to college and professional tournaments alike.

It all came down to this tournament. At the end of a season marked by highs and lows, Cal men’s tennis was represented by the No. 28 duo in the country: Yuta Kikuchi and Carl Emil Overbeck in the NCAA Doubles Championships.

After helping the team finish the regular season 11-9, doubles pair Yuta Kikuchi and Carl Emil Overbeck will head to the NCAA Doubles Championship this week at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

No. 50 Cal men’s tennis had a chance to be Pac-12 champions. Unfortunately for Cal, it had to face a team that it had already lost to twice this season: No. 13 USC.