BERKELEY – Seeded No. 1 in the BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge presented by Oracle, California takes on eighth-seeded Purdue on Friday at 8:30 a.m. in the event in Indian Wells, California. The tournament will crown a champion from the eight-team field on Sunday afternoon.
 
Along with the No. 8/13 Golden Bears (9-4 record) and unranked Boilermakers (11-6), the field includes second-seeded and No. 7/9-ranked Oklahoma (10-4), third-seeded and No. 11/6 Baylor (13-3), fourth-seeded and No. 10/7 USC (13-2), fifth-seeded and 33rd-ranked SMU (9-3), sixth-seeded and 32nd-ranked South Florida (9-5) and seventh-seeded and 45th-ranked Tulsa (10-8).
 
Each team will play on each day of the three-day tournament, with the main-draw final scheduled to start at 10 a.m. on Sunday at the Indian Wells Tennis Center. Here is the link to the draw.
 
The Collegiate Tennis Challenge overlaps with the last three days of the BNP Paribas Open professional tournament, which will also Sunday at the Indian Wells Tennis Center.

For more information, please visit bnpparibasopen.com.
 
Last Year at the BNPPO
Cal split its matches in the 2016 BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge presented by Oracle, beating Baylor, 4-1, on March 19 and then losing to Oklahoma, 4-3, on March 20.
 
One of the highlights of Cal's trip to Indian Wells last year was Florian Lakat hitting with Novak Djokovic on center court before the pro final, which Djokovic won by beating Canadian Milos Raonic.
 
Poll Position
The Bears dropped seven spots to earn a No. 13 ranking in Tuesday's Oracle/ITA team poll. They were ranked fifth in the March 8 USTA Top 25; the USTA will release its next poll on Wednesday.
 
The next set of individual Oracle/ITA Rankings won come out on March 21. In the most recent (March 7) individual rankings, senior Florian Lakat and senior Filip Bergevi claimed the No. 1 doubles ranking, with the pair of senior Andre Goransson and junior Billy Griffith ranked 54th. In singles, Lakat is ranked 14th, Goransson is 30th, Griffith is 53rd and Bergevi is 109th.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Florian Lakat, a previous Pac-12 Player of the Week (Feb. 20), has a 15-7 singles record and is 8-4 at court-one singles
• Andre Goransson, who has an 18-8 singles record and beat Bergevi for the singles title at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships last fall, has a 7-3 court-two singles record
• Bergevi, who returned to the lineup at Stanford on March 7 after missing some action, is 15-5 in singles, including 3-3 on court three
• In singles, Griffith has an 18-3 record, including an 8-1 dual-match record; that breaks down into 4-0 on court three and 4-1 on court four
• Freshman Bjorn Hoffmann (18-9 in singles) has played the most on court five (2-4); he's also 3-2 on court four, on which he upset the 34th-ranked Yuya Ito 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-3 in Cal's recent 4-3 loss to Texas
• Freshmen Dominic Barretto (12-8 overall) and Connor Heap 2-5) are each 1-3 on court six, while junior J.T. Nishimura (5-3) is 1-1 on six
• Doubles All-Americans last season, Lakat and Bergevi have posted a 14-3 doubles record, including a 6-1 record on court one, so far this season; last fall, the two Bears won the doubles crown at the Saint Francis Health System All-American Championships
• Goransson and Griffith have a 13-5 doubles record, including a 4-1 court-two record
• Hoffmann and Nishimura have an 8-3 doubles record, including 7-2 on court three
• 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 Purdue

• Has two common opponents with Cal; lost to Baylor 4-0 (Cal beat Baylor 4-2) and lost to Texas 4-0 (Cal lost to Texas 4-3)
• In its most recent action, Purdue beat Niagara twice, 4-0 and 5-1, on March 10 in Chicago
• The doubles team of Gergely Madarasz and Ricky Medinilla is ranked seventh
• Madarasz is ranked 102nd  in singles
• Pawel Gajdzik is in his eighth season as Purdue's head coach

 
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 Yale on March 23 and then Illinois on March 25 at the Hellman Tennis Complex.