The unbeaten and 22nd-ranked California men's tennis team puts its 7-0 record to the test when it opens its ACC schedule against No. 10 NC State and top-ranked Wake Forest in its first conference road trip to North Carolina. The Demon Deacons are also unbeaten at 16-0, while the Wolfpack is 8-4.
 
At No. 10 NC State (8-4, 0-0 ACC)
When: Friday, Feb. 28, 1 pm PT
Where: J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center, Raleigh, N.C.
Live Stream: NC State Website
Live Scores: StatBroadcast
 
At No. 1 Wake Forest (16-0, ACC)
When: Sunday, March 2, 9 am PT
Where: Wake Forest Tennis Center, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Live Stream: PlaySight
Live Scores: Wake Forest Website
 
Poll Position
Twenty-second-ranked Cal has four Golden Bears ranked in singles in No. 5 Carl Emil Overbeck (21-4), No. 32 Theo Dean (19-8), No. 70 Alex Chang (16-7) and No. 83 Derrick Chen (12-5). The pair of Dean and Overbeck (14-5) is ranked No. 25 in doubles.
 
Last Time: Bears Rout UC Davis 7-0
Then-No. 23 Cal thrashed UC Davis 7-0 on Feb. 15 in Berkeley, with Bernardo Munk Mesa clinching the victory with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Sam De Vries.
 
Cal came out strong, taking the doubles point with wins on courts three and one. In only their second match together, the duo of Theo Dean and Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutynski first defeated De Vries and Rithvik Katpelly 6-2 on court three. The veteran pair of Alex Chang, who served out match point, and Mikey Wright wrapped up the doubles point with a 6-4 win over Ryan Torres and Ivan Savkin on court one.
 
The Bears were dominant in singles, winning all six courts in straight sets. Dean, playing court-one singles for just the second time for the Bears, quickly increased the lead to 2-0 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Ryan Torres. Derrick Chen won next 6-2, 6-2 over Kaveh Taheri, before Munk Mesa – with his first clinching win at Cal – gave the Bears a 4-0 lead and the official win.
 
Chang followed closely behind with a 6-2, 6-3 win over 93rd-ranked Lucas Bollinger – the Aggies' only nationally ranked player – Lechno-Wasiutynski remained unbeaten (4-0) in his young collegiate career when he prevailed 6-1, 7-6(2) over Katpelly, and Jonathan Irwanto ended the day beating Perry DiGiulio 6-4, 7-5.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Cal qualified the most entrants in the country – men or women – at the NCAA individual championships in November with six – four in singles and two in doubles
• Senior Carl Emil Overbeck had a stellar fall – he reached the second round of the NCAA Singles Championship, captured the singles title at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships, finished with Theo Dean as the doubles runners-up at regionals, and won the singles title and, with Dean, the doubles crown at the Battle in the Bay Classic
• In the Battle in the Bay singles quarterfinals, Overbeck upset top-ranked Ozan Baris of Michigan State 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
• Overbeck qualified for NCAA singles by virtue of reaching the ITA Northwest Regional Championships singles final in October
• Overbeck and Theo Dean qualified for the NCAA Doubles Championship at the ITA West Sectional Championships in early November, when the duo beat Nevada's Lucas Hammond and Youssef Kadiri 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals
• Dean, a graduate transfer from Yale, has shone since his first weeks as a Bear, pairing with Overbeck in the fall to reach the doubles final at ITA regionals and win the doubles title at the Battle in the Bay Classic as well as upsetting top-ranked Baris 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 in the ITA All-American Championships singles round of 64 and reaching the singles semifinals at regionals
• Dean claimed his second NCAA berth when he bested UCLA's 104th-ranked Aadarsh Tripathi 7-5, 6-1 in the singles quarterfinals at the ITA West Sectional Championships
• Senior Alex Chang also qualified for NCAA singles when he won in the ITA West Sectional Championships quarterfinals, defeating UCLA's 96th-ranked Alexander Hoogmartens 6-4, 6-4
• Chang and Mikey Wright (10-8) won the third-place match at ITA sectionals, defeating Nevada's Lucas Hammond and Youssef Kadiri 6-1, 6-1 to punch their ticket to the NCAA Doubles Championship
• Chang and Wright – both Berkeley products – reached the quarterfinals of the ITA All-American Championships and ITA Northwest Regional Championships in the fall
• Sophomore Timofey Stepanov defeated UCLA's 104th-ranked Aadarsh Tripathi 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in an ITA West Sectionals playoff match to earn his first trip to NCAA singles
• Kris Kwinta is in his fourth season as the Peter Wright Director of Men's Tennis
• Kwinta, a UCLA alumnus ('08), clinched the Bruins' 4-3, NCAA championship win over Baylor in 2005
• Kwinta joined Cal in 2021-22 after serving on the USC coaching staff for nine seasons
• Andrea Caligiana (Wichita State '20) is in his first season as a Cal assistant coach
• Former Santa Clara star Vasileios Iliopoulos is in his second season as a Cal assistant coach

 
Scouting the Wolfpack

• NC State defeated UNC Greensboro 7-0 at home on Wednesday
• Before the UNCG match, the Wolfpack's most recent action included a 4-2 loss to then-No. 2 Wake in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship quarterfinals Feb. 15 in Dallas and a 4-1 loss to then-No. 5 Virginia on Feb. 16 in a national indoor consolation match at in Dallas
• NC State has three players ranked in singles in No. 24 Braden Shick, No. 25 Martin Borisiouk and No. 107 Luca Staeheli
• Two Wolfpack pairs are ranked in doubles in No. 17 Shick and Fons Van Sambeek as well as No. 22 Staeheli and Jules Leroux
• Kyle Spencer is in his eighth season as head coach of NC State

 
Scouting the Demon Deacons

• Wake Forest hosts No. 6 Stanford on Friday
• On Tuesday, the Demon Deacons defeated UNC-Wilmington 5-2 and Gardner-Webb 5-2 at the Wake Forest Tennis Center
• Then-No 2 Wake Forest captured the title at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship on Feb. 18 in Dallas, beating then-No. 1 TCU 4-3
• Wake has three ranked singles players – No. 9 Dhakshineswar Suresh, No. 10 Stefan Dostanic and No. 56 Ioannis Xilas
• Dostanic clinched the national indoor title against TCU, beating 18th-ranked Jack Pinnington 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 6-4 at court-one singles
• Five Wake pairs are ranked in doubles – No. 3 Luciano Tacchi/Luca Pow, No. 4 Dostanic/Suresh, No. 7 Suresh/Andrew Delgado, No. 31 Suresh/Xilas and No. 75 Xilas/Franco Capalbo
• Capalbo and Xilas clinched the doubles point vs. TCU at national indoors, defeating Duncan Chan and Albert Pedrico Kravtsov 7-5
• Tony Bresky is in his 14th year as head coach of Wake Forest

 
Next Time
Cal continues its ACC schedule with a four-match homestand starting with a March 7 meeting with No. 27 Florida State and a March 9 clash with No. 30 Miami.
 
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