MILWAUKEE – The California men's tennis team had a strong overall performance at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic, with two doubles teams and two singles players reaching the quarterfinals. But the Golden Bears bowed out of the 44th annual tournament on Sunday, with Paul Barretto and Can Kaya – the defending MTC doubles champions from Cal – falling in the semifinals at the Western Racquet Club.
 
Earlier in the day, the top-seeded and 58th-ranked Cal pair won its quarterfinal match against Navy's Derrick Thompson and Greg Durham, 8-5. But the Bears lost to N.C. State's Tadas Babelis and Yannai Barkai, 9-8(7), in the semis. Cal's Bjorn Hoffmann and Jack Molloy faced a talented duo in the quarterfinals in Princeton's 15th-ranked Ryan Seggerman and Payton Holden, with the Bears falling to the Tigers, 8-4.
 
In the singles quarterfinals, Molloy, seeded fourth in the MTC and ranked 83rd, won the first set but fell to Notre Dame's 43rd-ranked Richard Ciamarra in three sets, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. The fifth-seeded and 121st-ranked Barretto dropped a 6-3, 7-5 match to UNLV's 113th-ranked Alex Kobelt in the quarters.
 
Along with the four Bears playing in the Milwaukee tournament, another Cal group recently competed in the Battle in the Bay Tennis Classic in San Francisco, with the Bears ending their run in that tournament on Saturday.
 
"We had some strong performances this weekend in Milwaukee and San Francisco," said Peter Wright, Cal's Director of Men's Tennis. "As this is the start of the fall season, we're putting our emphasis on making progress and getting our guys match ready. We have plenty of work to do, and each tournament we play gives us valuable feedback and allows us to focus our attention on areas we can improve."
 
The Bears next compete in the Aggie Invitational from Sept. 27-29 at UC Davis.