The 11th-seeded and 11th-ranked California men's tennis team begins its 39th NCAA Championship run as the host of the Berkeley Regional. In Friday's first round at the Hellman Tennis Complex, the Golden Bears face 42nd-ranked Boise State at 1 p.m. PT after 16th-ranked UCLA meets 35th-ranked UC Santa Barbara at 10 a.m. PT. Friday's winners advance to the second round Saturday at 1 p.m. PT.
 
Admission is free to this week's NCAA Championship matches at Hellman.
 
NCAA Championship First Round
 
No. 16 UCLA (16-8) vs. No. 35 UC Santa Barbara (18-4)
When: Friday, May 2, 10 a.m. PT
Where: Hellman Tennis Complex, Berkeley, California
Live Stream
Live Scores
 
No. 11 Cal (18-4) vs. No. 42 Boise State (21-5)
When: Friday, May 2, 1 p.m. PT
Where: Hellman Tennis Complex, Berkeley, California
Live Stream
Live Scores
 
TBA vs. TBA
When: Saturday, May 3, 1 p.m. PT
Where: Hellman Tennis Complex, Berkeley, California
Live Stream
Live Scores
 
Poll Position
There are 15 ACC teams including Cal in today's ITA team poll. The rest of the ranked ACC teams are No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 4 Virginia, No. 5 Stanford, No. 8 NC State, No. 17 Duke, No. 20 Florida State, No. 23 Clemson, No. 39 Miami, No. 49 Georgia Tech, No. 53 North Carolina, No. 60 SMU, No. 63 Louisville, No. 66 Notre Dame and No. 74 Virginia Tech.
 
Three Bears are ranked in singles in No. 17 Carl Emil Overbeck (25-11), No. 60 Theo Dean (30-10) and No. 76 Alex Chang (20-11). The doubles duo of Overbeck and Dean (17-7) is ranked 35th.
 
Dean, Overbeck Named All-ACC
Cal veterans Carl Emil Overbeck and Theo Dean collected All-ACC honors last Thursday with Overbeck named to the singles first team and the pair of Dean and Overbeck claiming doubles third-team honors.
 
Overbeck, a senior ranked 15th in singles, has been ranked as high as fourth this season. The product of Copenhagen, Denmark, was the fourth seed when he competed in the NCAA Singles Championship in November and is producing his best season as a Bear, which included winning the singles title in the ITA Northwest Regional Championships. Overbeck has beaten several ranked opponents, including then-No. 1 Ozan Baris of Michigan State in September en route to capturing the title at the Battle in the Bay Classic.
 
Dean – a graduate student from Livermore – paired with Overbeck to earn their No. 35 doubles ranking. The duo finished as runner-up at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships, won the doubles trophy at the Battle in the Bay Classic and won its semifinal at the ITA West Sectional Championships to qualify for the NCAA Doubles Championship in the fall. The Bears, who have a 6-3 dual-match record, have beaten ranked opponents including No. 20 Alex Bulte and Youcef Rihane (Florida State), No. 21 Marko Miladinovic and Oskar Brostrom Poulsen (Baylor), No. 40 Aadarsh Tripathi and Alexander Hoogmartens (UCLA), and No. 61 Brunkow and Dominique Rolland (UC Santa Barbara).
 
Last Time: Cal Falls In ACC Quarterfinals
Fourth-seeded Cal saw a familiar opponent in its first appearance in the ACC Championship, as fifth-seeded Virginia stood between the Golden Bears and a berth in the conference tournament semifinals. In the teams' first meeting of the year, Cal defeated the Cavaliers 4-3 in Charlottesville, Virginia, when they were ranked sixth during the regular season. But in the rematch on April 18, the Bears fell 4-2 in Cary, North Carolina.
 
Trailing 1-0 after doubles, Cal tied the match twice in singles – first at 1-1 after Derrick Chen bested Roy Horovitz 6-1, 6-3 and then at 2-2 when Theo Dean beat James Hopper 6-4, 6-3. But a 6-4, 6-4 loss by Alex Chang to Dylan Dietrich left the Bears down 3-2. The match ended when Cal's Bernardo Munk Mesa fell to Mans Dahlberg 7-5, 6-4.
 
Munk Mesa Named ACC Freshman of the Week
Bernardo Munk Mesa earned Cal's first ACC weekly men's tennis honor when he was named the ACC Freshman of the Week on March 25 after clinching wins at No. 6 Virginia and then-No. 63 Virginia Tech during the regular season.
 
On March 21 against the Cavaliers with the match tied 3-3, Munk Mesa won in a clutch three-set performance over Mans Dahlberg 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(5) to hand the Bears a 4-3 victory. On March 23 against the Hokies, the Spaniard prevailed in another tight match over Victor Kimpel 7-6(4), 7-6(7) to secure an eventual 7-0 win for Cal.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Cal has a 45-38 record in the NCAA Championship
• The Bears last competed in the NCAA team tournament in 2023, when they defeated LSU 4-1 in the first round in Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Former Bear Lucas Magnaudet beat George Stoupe 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 to clinch the win over LSU
• Cal fell to host and seventh-seeded Michigan 4-0 in the 2023 NCAA second round
• Timofey Stepanov leads the current Bears with five clinching wins, with the sophomore clinching Cal's last three victories against SMU (4-2), Duke (4-3) and North Carolina (4-0)
• 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 the Broncos

• In its last match, Boise State lost to New Mexico 4-0 in the final of the Mountain West Championship final
• Jett Middleton is ranked 122nd in singles
• Middleton and Carson Baker each earned All-Mountain West honors in singles and doubles, while James Van Herzeele was also named to the All-MWC singles team
• The Broncos posted records of 10-0 at home, 5-4 on the road, 6-1 at neutral sites and 6-0 in the MWC
• Luke Shields is in his third year as Boise State's head coach

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