BERKELEY – With seeding in the upcoming Pac-12 Championship on the line, the 28th-ranked California men's tennis team travels to the Pacific Northwest this week to conclude the regular season. The Golden Bears (11-8, 3-3 Pac-12) face 55th-ranked Oregon (12-11, 1-5) on Friday at 1:30 p.m. PDT at the Student Tennis Center and take on 56th-ranked Washington (10-10, 1-5) on Sunday at noon. The match in Seattle will take place either outdoors at the Quillian Tennis Stadium or indoors at the Nordstrom Tennis Center.
 
Cal is currently in fifth place in the Pac-12 Conference standings and could finish as high as third place by the end of the weekend.
 
Click here for live scores for Cal-Oregon, and click here for the live stream and live scores page for the match in Seattle. Fans can also keep track of the Bears on Twitter @CalMensTennis.
 
Poll Position
Cal sits at No. 28 in this week's ITA rankings. Yuta Kikuchi (14-7) is ranked 30th in singles. The duo of Ryder Jackson and Lucas Magnaudet (14-4) is ranked 73 in doubles and the tandem of Kikuchi and Carl Emil Overbeck (4-0) is ranked 88th.
 
Cal Falls In Big Slam
Then-No. 29 Cal took a 3-2 lead over 20th-ranked Stanford in Saturday's Big Slam on The Farm, but the Bears lost the last two singles matches to fall to the Cardinal, 4-3.
 
Kikuchi Named Pac-12 Player of the Week
Cal star Yuta Kikuchi was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week on April 11, after the graduate student led the then-No. 43 Bears to conference victories over No. 28 UCLA and No. 10 USC in the last regular-season home matches of his career.
 
That marked the second Pac-12 Player of the Week accolade for Kikuchi, who first garnered the honor in the spring of 2022.
 
Against the Bruins on April 7, Kikuchi defeated Patrick Zahraj, 6-4, 6-2, at court-one singles to clinch Cal's 4-0 win. Kikuchi also partnered with senior Philip Hjorth to clinch the doubles point with a 7-5 win over UCLA's Jeffrey Fradkin and Aadarsh Tripathi on court three.
 
On April 8, in possibly his last match as a collegian at the Hellman Tennis Complex, Kikuchi beat USC's 35th-ranked Stefan Dostanic, 6-3, 6-1, for his fifth consecutive singles win. That win gave Cal a 1-1 tie with the Trojans and started a comeback that resulted in Cal's 4-3 triumph.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Cal is 36-3 in the all-time series with Oregon, including a 4-2 loss to the Ducks in 2022
• The Bears have a 39-9 all-time record against Washington, including a 4-3 win over the Huskies on Senior Day last year
• Sophomore Carl Emil Overbeck (12-12 record) has won six of his last eight singles matches, including a 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 result over Lodewijk Westrate that clinched Cal's 4-3 upset of No. 10 USC on April 8
• Overbeck and Yuta Kikuchi – who has won five of his last six in singles – lead Cal with three clinching wins each this season
• Kikuchi posted a big win In the Hawaii Invitational on Jan. 9, defeating Duke's fourth-ranked Garrett Johns, 7-5, 4-6, 1-0(5)
• In the fall, Kikuchi won his first professional singles title when he took the crown at the Norman Open in Oklahoma; the Japan native also reached the singles final of the KPSF Open in San Francisco
• Senior Philip Hjorth (11-3) has won three straight in singles, and he paired with Kikuchi (10-5) to win two of their last three doubles matches
• Ryder Jackson – who has a 19-13 singles record – had an impressive first fall as a Bear, reaching the singles final of the ITA Northwest Super Regional Championships and competing in singles in the ITA National Fall Championships
• Overbeck shone in doubles and singles in the fall, joining Jackson in the singles semifinals of super regionals and teaming with Kikuchi to repeat as doubles champs in the Battle in the Bay Classic in September
• The duo of sophomore Mikey Wright and freshman John Kim won the doubles title at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships in Berkeley in October
• Kris Kwinta (UCLA '08) is in his second season as the Peter Wright Director of Men's Tennis
• Former BYU player Francis Sargeant is in his second year as a Cal assistant coach

Scouting the Ducks

• Oregon has lost four straight matches, including a pair of 4-0 setbacks against No. 10 USC and No. 28 UCLA in the Ducks' last two contests in Los Angeles
• The tandem of Joshua Charlton and Quinn Vandecasteele is ranked 34th in doubles
• Nils Schyllander is in his 17th season as head coach of Oregon

Scouting the Huskies

• Washington has lost six straight, including a 4-0 setback at No. 39 UCLA and a 4-1 loss at No. 10 USC in its last two matches
• Cesar Bouchelaghem is ranked 124th in singles
• Bouchelaghem and Dzianis Zharyn are ranked 65th in doubles
• Rahim Esmail is in his first year as Washington's head coach

Next Time
Cal plays in the Pac-12 Championship from April 26-29 in Ojai.
 
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