The 15th-ranked California men's tennis team looks to continue its momentum at the Hellman Tennis Complex this week when it hosts Louisville on Thursday and No. 55 Notre Dame on Saturday in a pair of ACC matches. The Golden Bears (9-2, 2-2 ACC) won their last two contests at home last week against conference opponents Florida State and Miami and are 4-0 at Hellman.
 
Vs. Louisville (6-10, 0-4 ACC)
When: Thursday, March 13, 1:30 pm PT
Where: Hellman Tennis Complex, Berkeley, Calif.
Live Stream: PlaySight
Live Scores: StatBroadcast
Admission: Free
 
Vs. No. 55 Notre Dame (10-6, 0-4 ACC)
When: Saturday, March 15, 4 p.m. PT
Where: Hellman Tennis Complex, Berkeley, Calif.
Live Stream: PlaySight
Live Scores: StatBroadcast
Admission: Free
 
Poll Position
Three Golden Bears are ranked in the most recent ITA singles poll in No. 6 Carl Emil Overbeck (21-6), No. 36 Theo Dean (22-9) and No. 49 Alex Chang (17-9). The doubles duo of Overbeck and Dean and Overbeck (15-6) is ranked No. 32.
 
Playing in arguably the strongest conference in the nation, No. 15 Cal is one of 14 ACC schools ranked in the ITA team poll, including No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 5 NC State, No. 8 Virginia, No. 9 Stanford, No. 11 Duke, No. 24 Clemson, No. 32 Florida State, No. 34 Miami, No. 42 Georgia Tech, No. 53 North Carolina, No. 55 Notre Dame, No. 56 Virginia Tech and No. 63 SMU. Only two ACC teams – Louisville and Boston College – are not ranked.
 
Last Time: Cal Sweeps Florida Schools In ACC Victories
Cal swept then-No. 25 Florida State 4-3 and then-No. 29 4-0 last week in Berkeley.
 
Against FSU last Friday, the Bears claimed the doubles point thanks to wins on court three – where Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutynski and Mikey Wright defeated Jamie Connel and Jan Sebesta 6-3 – and court one – where the 32nd-ranked pair of Theo Dean and Carl Emil Overbeck earned an impressive win over third-ranked Alex Bulte and Youcef Rihane 6-4 to clinch the point.

The match was eventually tied 3-3 – with singles wins from Dean and Derrick Chen – and came down to Lechno-Wasiutynski's court-six match against Azariah Rusher. After splitting the first two sets, the newest Bear – who joined Cal in January – was down 4-2 in the third set. But he rallied to win the set, win the match 6-1, 6-7(4), 7-5, secure Cal's win and set off a celebration with his teammates.
 
On Sunday against Miami, the Bears quickly took charge of the match in doubles. The first-time doubles pair of Chen and Dean claimed the first win of the day, beating Martin Katz and Antonio Prat 6-2 on court one. The Bears clinched the doubles point on court three, where Wright and Lechno-Wasiutynski topped Mehdi Sadaoui and Jules Garot 6-1 to improve their record to 3-0.
 
Dean doubled the lead when he bested Prat 6-4, 6-3 at court-two singles, and sophomore Alex Aney made his season debut when he bested Garot 6-4, 6-2 on court six to give the Bears a 3-0 advantage. Chen soon completed a 6-3, 6-3 win over Sadaoui to clinch and hand Cal the win.
 
 
 
Scouting the Bears

• With a 2-2 ACC record, Cal is tied with three teams (Stanford, Florida State and Miami) for seventh place in the standings of the 16-team conference
• Derrick Chen (against Miami and Saint Mary's), Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutynski (Texas Tech, Florida State), Carl Emil Overbeck (Saint Mary's, UCLA) and Timofey Stepanov (UCSB, USC) have each clinched two Cal victories to lead the Bears
• Freshman Bernardo Munk Mesa clinched Cal's win over UC Davis
• Cal qualified the most entrants in the country – men or women – at the NCAA individual championships in November with six – four (Overbeck, Chang, Dean and Stepanov) in singles and two (Dean/Overbeck and Chang/Mikey Wright) in doubles
• Along with beating UCLA in Los Angeles 4-2, Cal defeated USC on the road as well this season to mark the first time in modern history that the program swept the two schools in LA
• 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
• 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 Louisville

• This marks the first meeting between Cal and Louisville
• With 0-4 ACC records, the Cardinals and Irish are tied with Boston College, SMU and Virginia Tech for last place in the conference
• The Cardinals snapped a seven-match losing streak when they beat Southern Indiana 7-0 last Sunday at home
• After losing the first half of a doubleheader to Duke 4-2, Louisville beat the Screaming Eagles thanks to a clinching win from Kosuke Nakanishi, who topped Axel Sabourin 6-2, 6-2
• Rodrigo da Silva is in his sixth season as head coach of Louisville

Scouting Notre Dame

• The Irish play at Stanford on Thursday
• Notre Dame had its best start since 2019 when it opened the dual-match season at 8-1
• But more recently the Irish have lost four straight, and all four were ACC matches: 4-1 at then-No. 54 Georgia Tech, 4-2 at then-No. 33 Clemson, 4-1 at then-No. 11 Duke at home and 4-3 to then-No. 68 North Carolina at home
• Sebastian Dominko is ranked 34th in singles
• Ryan Sachire is in his 12th year as head coach at Notre Dame 

Next Time
Cal plays at No. 8 Virginia on March 21 and at No. 56 Virginia Tech on March 23.
 
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