BERKELEY – The 29th-ranked California men's tennis team faces a familiar foe on Thursday to start its Pac-12 Championship run, as the fifth-seeded Golden Bears meet fourth-seeded and 23rd-ranked Stanford in a quarterfinal at 9 a.m. PDT at Libbey Park in Ojai. The winner of the conference tournament earns the Pac-12's automatic berth into the NCAA Championship.
 
Cal has an overall record of 12-9, while the Cardinal is 13-9. The rivals each had a 4-4 Pac-12 record during the regular season, with Stanford edging the Bears for the higher seed in the Pac-12 Championship due to its conference win over Cal.
 
This will be the third match between the two rivals this season, with Cal winning a nonconference clash on 4-3 on Jan. 20 in Berkeley and Stanford winning the conference contest, 4-3, on April 15 on The Farm. In the earlier match, Cal graduate student Yuta Kikuchi defeated Arthur Fery, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, to clinch the victory.
  
The live stream for the match will be available by clicking here. Live scores for the tournament will be available here. Saturday's 3 p.m. final will air on the Pac-12 Networks. Fans can also keep track of the Bears on Twitter @CalMensTennis.
 
Poll Position
Along with the Bears' No. 29 team ranking, Yuta Kikuchi (16-7) is ranked 28th in singles. The duo of Kikuchi and Carl Emil Overbeck (5-1) is ranked 63rd and the pair of Ryder Jackson and Lucas Magnaudet (14-4) is ranked 84th in doubles.
 
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 Yahaba, Japan, native 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 has an 81-139-2 record in the all-time series with Stanford
• Sophomore Carl Emil Overbeck (14-12 record) has won eight of his last 10 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 and a 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-5 win over Ivailo Keremedchiev to clinch Cal's 4-3 win at No. 55 Oregon on April 21
• Overbeck leads Cal with four clinching wins each this season, Yuta Kikuchi – who has won seven of his last eight in singles – has clinched three times, Philip Hjorth and Siddhant Banthia have each clinched twice, and Derrick Chen has clinched once
• 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
• Philip Hjorth (12-4) has won four of his last five 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 Cardinal

• Stanford is on a two-match losing streak after falling 4-1 at No. 56 Washington on April 21 and 4-1 at No. 55 Oregon on April 23
• The Cardinal has four players ranked in singles: No. 4 Arthur Fery, No. 15 Nishesh Basavareddy, No. 27 Max Basing and No. 56 Samir Banerjee
• The duo of Basavareddy and Fery is ranked No. 20 in doubles
• Paul Goldstein is in his ninth season as head coach of Stanford 

Next Time
Cal awaits the announcement of the NCAA Championship on May 1 and the announcement of the NCAA Individual Championships on May 2.
 
Stay Posted
For further coverage of the Bears, follow them on Twitter (@CalMensTennis), Instagram (@CalMensTennis) and Facebook (@CalMensTennis).