BERKELEY – The 11th-ranked and 11th-seeded California men's tennis team defeated No. 42 Boise State 4-1 in its NCAA Championship opener Friday at the Hellman Complex to advance to the second round slated for Saturday at 1 p.m. PT. The Golden Bears will face a familiar opponent Saturday in No. 16 UCLA, which won its first-round match over UC Santa Barbara earlier Friday at Hellman.
 
Cal improved its record to 19-4 upon beating the Broncos, who ended their season at 21-6.
 
Doubles featured a good battle on each of the three courts. The 35th-ranked Cal duo of Theo Dean and Carl Emil Overbeck kicked off the day with a 6-4 win over the Broncos' Jett Middleton and Carson Baker one court one. But Boise State responded on court two, where Cal's Alex Chang and Derrick Chen fell to Taiyo Kurata and Julies Seifert 6-4. In an even tighter match on court three, Mikey Wright and Timofey Stepanov edged Idriss Haddouch and James Van Herzeele 7-6(3) to claim the doubles point for the Bears.
 
The Broncos tied the overall match 1-1 at court-five singles, where Cal freshman Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutynski fell to Haddouch 6-3, 6-0.
 
The Bears then rattled off the next three wins to wrap up the match. First, freshman Bernardo Munk Mesa defeated John Chin 6-3, 6-4 on court six and then Chang – ranked 76th – knocked off Baker 6-3, 6-3 on court two to give the Bears a 3-1 lead. Dean – ranked 60th – followed with a 7-6(6), 6-3 victory over Lukas Velik on court three to send the Bears to their meeting with the Bruins.
 
"We knew Boise was going to come out firing," said Kris Kwinta, Cal's Peter Wright Director of Men's Tennis. "They're really well coached and have a lot of talented guys. They went 21-5 and won their conference. Congrats to them. I thought we could've executed a little better in doubles, but what I liked was that we were down on a couple courts and we found a way to build ourselves up with energy and finished well. That was the impressive part – it's not how well you're playing but what you're going to do with it. I was happy with how we responded in doubles. We didn't hang our heads. We just competed and found a way.
 
"And guys competed in singles. It was good to hear the energy of Theo on court three and Carlo on one and Berni on six. It was good to feel that, and I think we could be even more vocal and make it more a celebration of our sport. But nevertheless, we found ways to win and squeak out tough sets. Kudos to Theo. He blew a big lead in the first set but found a way to still win it. He's so mentally tough. It was a fun match for sure, and we're looking forward to playing the Bruins tomorrow."
 
The Bruins beat the Gauchos 4-0 in their first-round clash. Saturday's match between Cal and UCLA will be the second of the season for the two UCs, as the Bears bested the Bruins 4-2 on Feb. 1 in Los Angeles, with Overbeck clinching the win.
 
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