STANFORD, Calif. – The ITA Kick-Off Weekend set up an earlier than usual Big Slam rivalry match between No. 13 Cal men's tennis and No. 11 Stanford, with the winner of Sunday's final at the Taube Family Tennis Center advancing to the Oracle ITA National Team Indoor Championship. In the end, the Golden Bears fell to the host Cardinal, 4-0, to even their record at 1-1.
 
The Bears trailed 1-0 after the doubles point, with the 22nd-ranked Ben Draper and Bjorn Hoffmann losing to Stanford's Alexandre Rotsaert and Tomas Kopczynski, 6-3, in the clinching match.
 
Cal fell behind 3-0 when Kent Hunter dropped a 6-1, 6-4 result to the 54th-ranked Sangeet Sridhar and the 49th-ranked Jack Molloy lost, 6-4, 6-3, to the 18th-ranked Rotsaert. The remaining four singles matches went to three sets, with Cal needing to win all of them to prevail. But the Cardinal clinched the victory when Neel Rajesh beat Cal's Ben Draper, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, on court five.
 
"We got off to a slow start in the doubles, and that quickly put us at a 1-0 deficit," said Peter Wright, Cal's Director of Men's Tennis. "We felt our singles would be key for us today, and our guys played some very strong tennis throughout our lineup.
 
"This is chapter one of our season's story, and maybe it didn't go as well as we would have liked, and it certainly exposed some elements that need work. We're focused on the long game and the last chapter of the book because our guys know they're the authors, and they'll be working toward writing an exciting final chapter."
 
Cal next hosts No. 10 UCLA on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and No. 3 USC on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Hellman Tennis Complex.
 
ITA Kick-Off Weekend
 
No. 11 Stanford (3-0) defeated No. 13 California (1-1), 4-0
Jan. 26, 2020, in Stanford, Calif.
Taube Family Tennis Center
 
Doubles
1. Axel Geller/Neel Rajesh (Stanford) def. Jack Molloy/Yuta Kikuchi (Cal), unfinished
2. Timothy Sah/Sangeet Sridhar (Stanford) def. Paul Barretto/Can Kaya (Cal), 6-2
3. Alexandre Rotsaert/Tomas Kopczynski (Stanford) def. No. 22 Ben Draper/Bjorn Hoffmann (Cal), 6-3*

Order of Finish – 2, 3*
*Clinched the doubles point

Singles
1. Axel Geller (Stanford) vs. No. 34 Yuta Kikuchi (Cal) 6-2, 3-6, 5-4 Unfinished
2. No. 18 Alexandre Rotsaert (Stanford) def. No. 49 Jack Molloy (Cal), 6-4, 6-3
3. No. 54 Sangeet Sridhar (Stanford) def. Kent Hunter (Cal), 6-1, 6-4
4. Paul Barretto (Cal) vs. Timothy Sah (Stanford) 4-6, 6-3, 5-1 Unfinished
5. Neel Rajesh (Stanford) def. Ben Draper (Cal) 4-6, 6-1, 7-5^
6. No. 81 Bjorn Hoffmann (Cal) def. Filip Kolasinksi (Stanford), 7-6(6), 3-6, 2-1 Unfinished

Order of Finish – 3, 2, 5
^Clinched the overall match