The California men's tennis team – ranked a season-best No. 14 in this week's ITA poll – heads on another ACC road trip this week to play sixth-ranked Virginia and 63rd-ranked Virginia Tech. The Golden Bears (11-2, 4-2 ACC) are riding a four-match winning streak, with all four wins against conference competition.
 
Both matches will be featured as part of the Cracked Racquets CrossCourt Cast on ACCNX.

At No. 6 Virginia (11-5, 3-3 ACC)
When: Friday, March 21, 9:30 am PT
Where: Virginia Tennis Facility at Boar's Head Resort, Charlottesville, Va.
Watch CrossCourt Cast: ACCNX
Live Stream: PlaySight
Live Scores: StatBroadcast
 
At No. 63 Virginia Tech (9-8, 1-5 ACC)
When: Sunday, March 23, Noon PT
Where: Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center, Blacksburg, Va.
Watch CrossCourt Cast: ACCNX
Live Stream: Virginia Tech Website
Live Scores: Virginia Tech Website
 
Poll Position
Now ranked 14th, Cal is one of 14 ACC teams appearing in this week's ITA team poll, including No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 5 NC State, No. 6 Virginia, No. 8 Stanford, No. 13 Duke, No. 16 Clemson, No. 34 Miami, No. 37 Florida State, No. 38 Georgia Tech, No. 56 SMU, No. 58 North Carolina, No. 61 Notre Dame and No. 63 Virginia Tech.
 
In the individual ITA rankings, senior Cal Emil Overbeck (21-6) is ranked ninth, graduate student Theo Dean (24-9) is 37th and senior Alex Chang (18-10) is 68th. Overbeck and Dean are ranked 24th in doubles.
 
Last Time: Cal Improves To 4-2 In ACC
Cal defeated Louisville 5-2 and Notre Dame 4-3 last week at the Hellman Tennis Complex. Theo Dean claimed his first clinching win of the season against the Cardinals, while senior Derrick Chen clinched his team-leading third Cal victory of the season against the Irish.
 
Last Thursday against Louisville, Alex Chang and Carl Emil Overbeck – playing for the first time together this season –topped Kosuke Nakanishi and Andre' Steinbach 6-1 on court one to secure the doubles point for the Bears. Later, Cal got the clincher from Dean at court-two singles, where the veteran Bear defeated Wil Mayew 6-4, 6-2.
 
Down 1-0 against Notre Dame on Saturday, Cal won four of the first five completed singles matches to prevail, with Chen besting Peter Nad 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 at court-four singles to clinch the overall win.
 
Scouting the Bears

• With a 4-2 ACC record, Cal is tied with Stanford for sixth place in the standings of the 16-team conference
• 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 Virginia

• In its last two matches, Virginia won at Boston College 4-1 and at SMU 4-1
• Two Cavaliers are ranked in singles: No. 10 Rafael Jodar and No. 21 Dylan Dietrich
• Three Virginia tandems are ranked in doubles: No. 28 James Hopper and Keegan Rice, No. 34 Dietrich and Mans Dahlberg, and No. 70 Hopper and Jodar
• Andres Pedroso is in his eighth season as head coach of Virginia

Scouting Virginia Tech

• Virginia Tech hosts No. 8 Stanford on Friday
• The Hokies snapped a five-match losing streak in its last match – a 5-2 win at Boston College
• Maxime St. Hilaire clinched the victory over BC with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Caleb Saltz at court-one singles
• The doubles pair of Matt Harper and Alberto Orso is ranked 65th
• Jim Thompson is in his 27th year as head coach at Virginia Tech

Next Time
Cal concludes its East Coast trip when it plays at Old Dominion on March 26 and at Boston College on March 28.
 
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