BERKELEY – Fourth-ranked California returns to the ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championship this week, with the 3-0 Golden Bears taking on 13th-ranked Baylor in Friday's first round in Charlottesville, Virginia. The defending NCAA champion Virginia Cavaliers are hosting the tournament at the Boar's Head Sports Club.
 
Cal is one of 16 teams competing in the national tournament and is one of 15 teams that advanced to indoors through the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. UVa, the 2016 runner-up, earned a spot in the field as the host. The Golden Bears, seeded fourth, will play the Baylor Bears (7-0) at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday. The national tournament ends with the final on Monday.
 
FloTennis, which is a subscription-based service, will provide live streaming from national indoors.
 
For more information on national indoors, please visit the tournament's site by clicking here.
 
The Golden Bears last played at national team indoors in 2015. They didn't able to advance to last year's tournament, as bad weather on the East Coast prevented Cal from competing in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend – the qualifying event for indoors – at Duke.
 
Poll Position
Here are Cal's Oracle/ITA Rankings based on the most recent singles and doubles polls, which came out on Feb. 8: In singles, senior Florian Lakat is ranked 11th, senior Andre Goransson is 27th, junior Billy Griffith is 40th and senior Filip Bergevi is 42nd. Bergevi and Lakat are ranked third in doubles. The next set of team and individual rankings are scheduled for release on Feb. 21.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Billy Griffith clinched Cal's most recent win, a 4-2 nonconference victory at Pepperdine on Feb. 12, with a court-four victory over Lautaro Pane, 6-4, 7-6(5); that improved Griffith's singles record to 12-2
• The pair of junior J.T. Nishimura and freshman Bjorn Hoffmann clinched the doubles point against the Waves with a 7-6(4), court-three win over Pane and Pedro Iamachkine
• Filip Bergevi (13-2 record) clinched the Cal's berth to national indoors with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over Tulane's Sebastian Rey in a 4-2 Golden Bear victory on Jan. 28 in Berkeley
• Bergevi and fellow senior Florian Lakat (10-2) also clinched the doubles point against Tulane by beating the Rey and Chi-Shan Jao, 6-3
• Lakat and Bergevi won the doubles title at the Saint Francis Health System All-American Championships in the fall
• Lakat has a 9-3 singles record, including 2-1 on court one
• Andre Goransson (14-4; 2-0 on court 2) won the singles title at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships at Cal in the fall
• Previously ranked 45th, the pair of Goransson and Griffith has an 8-2 doubles record
• Two proud Cal alumni lead the Golden Bears: 2016 Pac-12 Coach of the Year Peter Wright (class of '91) is in his 24th year as head coach, while associate head coach Tyler Browne (class of 2008) is in his ninth year on the staff

Scouting Baylor

• In its last match, Baylor beat Purdue, 4-0, on Feb. 7 in Waco, Texas
• Juan Benitez is ranked 54th and Max Tchoutakian is 57th in singles
• Will Little and Johannes Schretter are ranked 41st in doubles
• Baylor is led by director of tennis Matt Knoll, who is in his 21st season in charge of the Bears

TennisRecruiting.Net Tabs Cal's Class No. 1
TennisRecruiting.net named Cal's recruiting class No. 1 in its winter rankings. The five-man class of Jacob Brumm, Paul Barretto, Jackson Suh, Ben Draper and Jack Molloy – which arrives in Berkeley next fall – gave Cal (with 461 points and 8 first-place votes) the edge over Florida (460 point, 8 first-place votes) and UCLA (433 points, 3 first-place votes) in the top 25 poll.
 
Bears Celebrate 125 Years of Cal Tennis
Cal men's tennis is celebrating the 125th year of the program, which has produced multiple national champions and All-Americans in its storied history. The perennial powerhouse, which was founded in 1892, has won three national team titles, four national singles titles and 14 national doubles championships from NCAA, USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships and ITA All-American Championships. The Golden Bears have also captured several conference singles and doubles titles as well.
 
Now in his 24th year as head coach at his alma mater, Peter Wright has coached 17 players who combined to earn 18 All-America honors and led the 2015-16 squad to the NCAA team semifinals. Wright has earned his share of accolades along the way, including his third Pac-12 Coach of the Year award last season and selection into the USTA NorCal Hall of Fame in the summer of 2015.
 
Next Time
Cal hosts a doubleheader on Feb. 26 at the Hellman Tennis Complex, taking on UC Davis at 10 a.m. and then playing UC Santa Barbara at 2 p.m. On Feb. 28, the Bears host Michigan at 5 p.m. at Hellman.