BERKELEY – With hundreds of fans cheering on a sunny Sunday at the Hellman Tennis Complex, the 10th-ranked California men's tennis team dispatched No. 47 North Carolina quickly 4-0 to close out its regular-season home schedule and extend its winning streak to 11 matches. For the third consecutive match, junior Timofey Stepanov clinched a Cal victory, defeating Diego Jarry in straight sets at court-four singles.
 
Cal improved its record to 18-2 (10-2 ACC), while UNC fell to 12-9 (6-6 ACC).
 
Before the match, with Hellman rocking to a deejay and fans flocking towards a food truck, Cal honored the careers of five veteran players – seniors Derrick Chen, Alex Chang, Carl Emil Overbeck and Mikey Wright and graduate student Theo Dean – during its Senior Day event. Cal also honored the memory of late alumnus Jim McManus during its annual McManus Legends Day celebration.
 
Appropriately enough, two Cal seniors who are also Berkeley natives – Chang and Wright– clinched the doubles point, beating Diego Jarry and Anthony Wright 6-4 on court two. Minutes earlier, Dean and Overbeck beat Vladislav Melnic and Chris Xu 6-3 on court one.
 
Cal took a 2-0 lead in singles after 11th-ranked Overbeck won on court one when Melnic retired while trailing 6-1, 1-0. Chen followed with a 6-1, 6-1 triumph over Nick Mangiapane on court five, and then Stepanov beat Jarry 6-1, 6-2 on court four to end the day. That marked the third straight clinching win for Stepanov, who also secured the Bears' 4-3 win over No. 15 Duke on Friday at Hellman and their 4-2 win at SMU on March 30.
 
"It's a special day for us, with five guys leaving the program who left such a big mark on the program and everything we've done here," said Kris Kwinta, Cal's Peter Wright Director of Men's Tennis. "It's a bittersweet day for us, but it's amazing to see them together. It's amazing to see how close the Bear family is and how many fans came out to support us. What a beautiful day. It's McManus Legends Day, Senior Day. All the legends are here, all the families, all the people who support tennis, a lot of kids, the cheer squad. It was just a fun celebration of tennis, these kids and the program. I'm very proud of how they played. They came out firing. We took care of business and we look forward to playing Stanford on Saturday."
 
Cal completes the regular season in the Big Slam at Stanford on Saturday before competing in the ACC Championship from April 15-20 in Cary, North Carolina.
 
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