BERKELEY – The 59th-ranked California men's tennis team put up a fight against No. 20 Stanford in Saturday's regular-season finale, but the Golden Bears wound up falling to the Cardinal, 4-1, in front of a good crowd on hand for the Big Slam at the Hellman Tennis Complex.
 
Cal ended the regular season with a 10-9 record (3-3 Pac-12). Stanford improved to 15-5 (7-1) and claimed at least a share of the Pac-12 Conference regular-season title.
 
Prior to the match and in front of nearly 1,000 fans, Cal held its Senior Day ceremony to celebrate the careers of Ryder Jackson and Lucas Magnaudet and honored the life and career of late alumnus Jim McManus on McManus Legends Day. Fuddruckers was also on hand to provide free hamburgers at Hellman.
 
The Bears trailed 1-0 after Stanford took the doubles point, with the Cardinal clinching when Aryan Chaudhary and Harsh Hemang Parikh beat Cal's Carl Emil Overbeck and Qian Sun, 6-4, on court three.
 
Cal and Overbeck bounced back in singles, with the junior topping the 57th-ranked Samir Banerjee, 6-4, 6-4, on court two to tie the overall match 1-1.
 
But the match was soon untied again when Jackson, ranked 88th, lost to the 19th-ranked Nishesh Basavareddy, 6-4, 6-4, on court one to give Stanford a 2-1 lead.
 
Three of the remaining four matches went to three sets apiece, which contributed to the match running over three hours. Court four finished in straight sets, though, with Cal sophomore Qian Sun dropping a close 7-5, 7-5 result to Kyle Kang. The Bears trailed 3-1.
 
Cal needed to win the last three matches to capture the Big Slam. Magnaudet led Stanford's 116th-ranked Neel Rajesh 4-3 in the third set, while Cal's 120th-ranked Alex Chang was tied 5-5 in his third set with Max Basing, when court five settled the match. Cal freshman Jonathan Irwanto fell to Nico Godsick, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, to wrap up the Cardinal's win.
 
"It was an unbelievable sporting event, starting with McManus Legends Day and the crowd that showed up, which created an amazing tennis atmosphere," said Kris Kwinta, Cal's Peter Wright director of Men's Tennis. "It was an incredible day to celebrate tennis, the seniors, Francis and Jim, so I was excited we were able to perform at a pretty high level. Two stories I would say – usually we play better in doubles and weaker in singles. Today, we played weak in doubles and better in singles.
 
"To be honest, I thought we were going to win. Lucas wasn't going to lose on Senior Day. He's beaten Rajesh before and was up 4-3. Alex had a million chances to win it; I knew he was going to come through. Irwanto had a bunch of chances and put himself in a great position. He's a warrior. He's young and we know what he's capable of. Carlo played a really good match against Banerjee. Qian came back from a few match points down. Everybody was just playing well. Ryder had an incredible match against the best collegiate player. These guys stepped up, and that's all you can ask for. I hope they take this loss into their hearts and believe from here on, because Stanford's a tough team, and we had it. You play at that level, everybody should be on notice. I'm proud of the boys, but I'm disappointed with the result. I thought we had a chance to take it, but such is life."
 
The Bears next play in the Pac-12 Championship that begins Wednesday in Ojai.
 
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