SURPRISE, Ariz. – The first half of the season ended on a high note for California men's tennis when freshman Yuta Kikuchi and sophomore Jacob Brumm fell in the doubles semifinals of the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships on Saturday.
 
The Golden Bears lost to Texas Tech's 42nd-ranked Parker Wynn and Bjorn Thomson, 6-3, 6-4, with the Red Raiders advancing to Sunday's final at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Complex.
 
"It was a great tournament for Jacob and Yuta, as they continue to demonstrate that they're one of the top collegiate doubles teams in the country," said Cal Director of Men's Tennis Peter Wright. "This week they played aggressive doubles and used powerful forehands to keep their opponents off balance. It's exciting for me to see two young players complementing each other so well on the doubles court and scoring victories over highly skilled opponents."
 
The unranked Bears have been impressive in the two tournaments they played in this fall, reaching the quarterfinals of the Saint Francis Health System ITA All-American Championships in October and then getting to the final four in Arizona.
 
"As we reflect on our fall play, we had some very encouraging results in singles and doubles – especially on the national level. I'm pleased to see how much our team has matured in the past three months, and we're all enthusiastically looking forward to January, when we start the spring dual-match season."
 
Cal will open the dual-match season on Jan. 15, 2019, when the Bears play Pacific in a nonconference battle in Stockton, California.