The California men's tennis team will send Golden Bears to two tournaments this week, with one group playing at the Dennis Rizza Intercollegiate Classic in Southern California and another competing in the Ralston/Neufeld Coaches Challenge, hosted by SMU, in Dallas.
 
Seniors Carl Emil Overbeck, Mikey Wright and Derrick Chen along with sophomore Alex Aney are set to play in the Dennis Rizza tournament at the Jack Kramer Club in Rolling Hills Estates. Overbeck is the defending singles champion at the event, with the top-seeded Dane defeating USC's third-seeded Karl lee, 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3, in last year's final. In four singles matches last year, Overbeck lost just one set.
 
Sophomores Timofey Stepanov, Jonathan Irwanto and Ethan Schiffman as well as freshman Bernardo Munk Mesa are the four competing in the event at the Mustangs' Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex. Players from 15 schools will play in Dallas – Cal, SMU, Baylor, BYU, Harvard, Memphis, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Prairie View A&M, Texas Tech, Texas-Arlington, TCU, UTSA, Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Tulsa.
 
At Dennis Rizza Intercollegiate Classic
When: Friday-Sunday, Nov. 1-3
Where: Jack Kramer Club, Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.
ITA Tournament Page
 
At Ralston/Neufeld Coaches Challenge
When: Friday-Sunday, Nov. 1-3
Where: Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex, Dallas, Texas
Watch: PlaySight
ITA Tournament Page
 
Overbeck Takes Singles Title As Bears Shine At ITA Regionals
Cal dominated play at the recent ITA Northwest Regional Championships in Seattle, with Carl Emil Overbeck capturing the singles title to qualify for the NCAA Singles Championship and the pair of Overbeck and Theo Dean finishing as the doubles runner-up. A total of three Golden Bears reached the singles semifinals and three Cal duos competed in the doubles quarterfinals at the Nordstrom Tennis Center.
 
Overbeck – seeded third and ranked 56th – defeated Washington's seventh-seeded and 108th-ranked Cesar Bouchelaghem 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the Oct. 22 singles final. On Oct. 21, in winning his semifinal match against Cal teammate Alex Chang, Overbeck – who won the Battle in the Bay Classic singles title earlier this fall – earned a berth in the NCAA Singles Championship, slated for Nov. 19-24 in Waco, Texas.
 
Third-seeded and 25th-ranked Dean and Overbeck – who won the doubles title at the Battle in the Bay Classic – came close to earning a second national tournament berth for the program, as the pair would have qualified for the NCAA Doubles Championship with a win in the regional doubles final. But the Bears fell to Stanford's 32nd-ranked and fourth-seeded Samir Banerjee and Nico Godsick 7-5, 6-1 in the title match.
 
In the singles third-place match, 123rd-ranked and eighth-seeded Chang defeated second-seeded and 44th-ranked Dean 6-3, 6-4.
 
Poll Position
In the first ITA individual polls of the 2024-25 season, the Bears earned three singles rankings – No. 44 Theo Dean, No. 56 Carl Emil Overbeck and No. 123 Alex Chang – along with two doubles rankings – No. 13 Chang and Mikey Wright and No. 25 Dean and Overbeck.
 
Next Time
With berths to the NCAA individual championships at stake, selected Bears will compete in the ITA West Sectional Championships in Malibu or the ITA Conference Masters Championships in Rome, Georgia. Both tournaments are scheduled to take place Nov. 7-10.
 
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