BERKELEY – Lucas Magnaudet clinched a Pac-12 Conference win for the California men's tennis team for the second straight day, as the Golden Bears defeated 74th-ranked Washington, 4-1, on Sunday at the Hellman Tennis Complex.
 
The senior beat Jim Hendrikx, 6-3, 7-5, at court-six singles to wrap up the victory.
 
Cal improved to 6-6 (2-0 Pac-12) with the win. The Huskies fell to 6-7 (0-2).
 
The Bears posted a second quality win this weekend – including a 4-1 win over No. 52 Oregon on Saturday at Hellman – to start the conference season unbeaten.
 
"I'm just happy for the guys," said Kris Kwinta, Cal's Peter Wright Director of Men's Tennis. "After a rough patch, we made a decision and we adjusted, like I said yesterday. We changed some things. Everybody started becoming accountable towards each other, pushing each other. It was a group effort. The message was from the coaching staff, but all the guys and captains took over the team and set an example. Now we are much more cohesive, starting from the warmup and at every practice. It's just a different feeling out there. They had to make a choice one way or the other, and we went up, which is good. That's a winning mentality. When it was needed, it showed up. That's not the end of it. We still have to work, obviously. A lot of things still need to improve. But we were able to overcome a lot in one week, so I'm excited to see what's going to happen this week and with the following challenges."
 
Cal took a 1-0 lead over Washington after winning the doubles point. For the second consecutive day, the pair of Qian Sun and Carl Emil Overbeck – in just its second match together – led Cal off with a win on court three, beating Hendrikx and Han-Chih Lin, 6-1. Also for the second straight day, the 65th-ranked Mikey Wright and Alex Chang clinched the doubles point, with the tandem besting Washington's 17th-ranked Cesar Bouchelaghem and Dzianis Zharyn, 6-3.
 
In singles, the 107th-ranked Overbeck doubled Cal's lead when he topped Bouchelaghem, 6-1, 6-2, on court one.
 
The Huskies made the score 2-1, when Ivan Sodan beat Cal freshman Jonathan Irwanto, 6-3, 6-3, on court five.
 
Another first-year Bear, Timofey Stepanov, followed with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Lin on court three to give Cal a 3-1 advantage. Magnaudet then bested Hendrikx to end the match. With the win, Magnaudet improved his season record to 7-7. The France native has missed some action this season with an injury, but he played doubles and singles this weekend and clinched the results against the Ducks and Huskies.
 
"I think he just wanted to be on the front page of CalBears.com," Kwinta joked. "It's good to see him back and healthy. We obviously missed him, and we're still missing Derrick (Chen). Others stepped up. For him to come back a few matches into the season and clinch both, that's not easy to do. I'm very impressed by him. He's matured a lot over the four years here. He's taking responsibility on and off the court. Having him back adds a lot of confidence to the team. And it's a message for the younger guys, who are watching, that this is what's expected."
 
Cal plays again Wednesday at 3 p.m. PT, when the Bears face San Francisco in a nonconference match at the California Tennis Club in San Francisco.
 
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