Now that the Virginia men (a three-peat over North Carolina, who knocked the Golden Bears out in the Round of 16) and the Florida women (over the defending champs Stanford...preventing Stanford from breaking the tie with the UCLA for the most NCAA team national championships) have claimed the NCAA team championships, it is time for the singles and doubles championships to be decided. In case you missed it, both Cal men’s and women’s tennis were eliminated in the Round of 16 by 9th seed North Carolina and 3rd seed Vanderbilt, respectively, last week.
Both the Cal Men’s and Women’s Tennis have their top two singles players in the singles championship bracket and their top doubles pair in the doubles championship bracket. For the Cal women, that means that senior Maegan Manasse and junior Karla Popovic will be in action today (Wednesday) while Manasse will pair with graduate transfer (from Alabama) Maya Jansen (who has won the NCAA doubles twice in her career) in the doubles championship (starting Thursday). For the Cal men, seniors Florian Lakat and Andre Goransson will play in the singles today. Lakat will pair up with fellow senior Filip Bergevi in the doubles championship.
All the Cal contestants are seniors with the exception of Karla Popovic. The seniors are all in the pictures below, from left to right (Goransson, Denise Starr, Jansen, Bergevi, Manasse, Stephanie Lin, and Lakat).
Cal has had consideration success in program histories in these singles and doubles championship. Cal men have two singles championship won by Bud Chandler in 1925 and 1926 (sure, that’s awhile ago). Cal women’s success in singles is a lot more recent as Susie Babos in 2006 and Jana Juricova in 2011 won the NCAA titles. Golden Bears are even better in the doubles with 9 from the men (6 from before 1939 with the most recent two from 1990 and 1991) and 5 from the women, including two by current head coach Amanda Augustus with partner Amy Jensen (who has been doing the Pac-12 Networks tennis coverage for the past few years).
In recent years, Cal Women’s Tennis have had finalists in these championships - Lynn Chi made the singles final in 2014, Klara Fabikova and Zsofi Susanyi made the doubles final in 2015 (losing to current Cal Bears in Maya Jansen and her partner Erin Routliffe from Alabama). Last year, Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr lost in the final to a pair from Florida (Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan).
The singles bracket consists of 64 entrants while the doubles bracket consists of 32 pairs. For the Cal men, Lakat is ranked 12th with a season record of 19-11. Goransson is ranked 61st, he is 25-12 for the season. The Cal pair of Lakat/Bergevi are ranked 5th in the country. For the Cal women, Manasse is ranked 34th while Popovic is ranked 10th. The pair of Manasse and Jansen are ranked 34th.
Singles
Round of 64 (Wednesday):
Maegan Manasse lost to Mississippi's 27th-ranked Arianne Hartono 6-2, 6-3.
Karla Popovic defeated Oklahoma State's 56th-ranked Katarina Adamovic 6-4, 6-0.
Andre Goransson defeated South Carolina's 71st-ranked Harrison O'Keefe 6-2, 6-2.
Florian Lakat won the rematch with North Carolina’s 20th-ranked Ronnie Schneider 6-4, 6-3. Schneider clinched UNC’s Round of 16 win over the Bears with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory last week.
Round of 32 (Thursday):
Karla Popovic defeated South Carolina’s 49th-ranked Ingrid Gamarra Martins 6-0, 6-3.
Florian Laka triumphed over Texas A&M’s 48th-ranked Jordi Arconada 6-4, 6-3.
Andre Goransson was eliminated by North Carolina’s 16th-ranked William Blumberg 7-5, 6-2. Blumberg also defeated Goransson in the team championship.
Doubles
Round of 32 (Thursday):
Manasse/Jansen upset Missouri's 10th-ranked Amina Ismail and Bea Machado Santos 6-2, 6-2.
Lakat/Bergevi bested Duke's 20th-ranked Spencer Furman and Nick Stachowiak 6-2, 6-4.
Watch all the action via the Free Online Stream: GeorgiaDogs.com
GO BEARS!