BERKELEY– Less than 24 hours from the end of its last match, the 65th-ranked California men's tennis team returned to a sunny Hellman Tennis Complex to defeat No. 47 UC Santa Barbara, 4-3, on Sunday. Freshman Timofey Stepanov won in straight sets to clinch the Golden Bears' victory in their first match of the day. In the late afternoon, senior Lucas Magnaudet clinched a 7-0 rout of Saint Mary's to improve Cal's record to 10-7 and complete the Bears third match of the weekend.
 
UCSB is 9-6, while Saint Mary's is 6-11.
 
The Bears broke out to a good start against the Gauchos, with Magnaudet and Ryder Jackson shutting out Lucca Liu and Kai Brady, 6-0, to win at court-two doubles in the early match. Carl Emil Overbeck and Qian Sun secured the doubles point with a 6-1 win over Conrad Brown and Diego Castillo.
 
Cal won the first three singles matches to earn the official victory. Magnaudet bested Castillo, 6-1, 6-1, the 104th-ranked Alex Chang topped Liu, 6-4, 6-4, and then Stepanov prevailed, 7-5, 6-3, over Brady on court four to clinch with the Bears leading 4-0.
 
The Gauchos won three three-setters over the remaining matches to make the score 4-3.
 
Cal won twice quickly in doubles against the Gaels to again claim the doubles point. Overbeck and Ethan Schiffman – playing on his birthday – beat Carlos Ramos Membrives and Ellison Greco, 6-2, on court three, and then the 45th-ranked Chang and Mikey Wright beat Diego Jarry and Paulo Hugo Etchecoin, 6-2, on court one to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.
 
Cal got a win from court-six singles again, this time from freshman Jonathan Irwanto, who beat Felipe Rincon, 6-3, 6-1, to give Cal a 2-0 advantage. Chang added a point from a 6-3, 6-1 win over Jarry on court two, and Cal's lead swelled to 3-0. For the second straight match, the court-four contest clinched a victory, as Magnaudet defeated Etchecoin on court four, 6-3, 6-0, to hand the Bears a 4-0 lead.
 
Unlike the UCSB match, Cal held on for the shutout, with Overbeck, Qian Sun and Stepanov each winning via a 10-point tiebreaker to close out the 7-0 match.

"It's a tough day for us against a good Santa Barbara team and a good Saint Mary's team," said Kris Kwinta, Cal's Peter Wright Director of Men's Tennis. "It's never easy to play back-to-back against good teams. But the guys definitely showed up. It was good to see Ryder play some good tennis. Almost everyone got the chance to play. Birthday boy Ethan Schiffman got a chance to play in doubles and played unbelievable in front of his mom, who was at the match.
 
"It was cool to see guys playing three deciding tiebreakers and coming through big time against Saint Mary's. Qian got his first victory in singles. Today was huge. Having two matches on their legs and pulling through against tough opponents shows you toughness. I'm excited. We've been improving some things as a team – we improved our doubles and team chemistry and camaraderie. This is going to add in a positive way. Happy for these guys and happy for Cal. We're looking forward to the following weekend."
 
Cal returns to its Pac-12 Conference schedule with matches at No. 49 USC on Friday and at No. 25 UCLA on Sunday.
 
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