Pac-12 Men’s Tennis Championship Final: Cal loses to USC

Saturday update:

Against a great USC Trojans team, Cal men’s tennis just could not pull off another major upset to win the program’s first Pac-12 title in the new team format (or just a Pac-12 title since 1953). Golden Bears fought hard by pushing 3 singles matches to a deciding 3rd set, but ultimately loses the Pac-12 final by a 4-0 score.

USC took the doubles point and won on courts 2, 3, and 5.

Cal will await its NCAA postseason fate (where will Cal go?) soon.

GO BEARS!

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Cal men’s tennis has been consistently good, but they still made some history with a huge upset win over the top seed UCLA on Friday afternoon. Bears won 4-1 over the Bruins, and you can tell that it meant a lot to the Cal players.

Jacob Brumm, the sophomore intended astrophysics major, clinched the victory with his singles win on Court 5 and talked to the Pac-12 Network afterward.

Bears won on Friday due to their depth. Courts 2 and 3 doubles won despite the loss at court 1. Bears also won 3 of 4 courts between 3 to 6 to get this big team win. UCLA has dominated Pac-12 men’s tennis for quite some time before this upset loss.

Golden Bears are searching for program’s first Pac-12 title since it switched to the team format in 2012. Bears lost to UCLA in the final back in 2016. Regardless of format, Cal men’s tennis has not won a Pac-12 title since 1953 (according to the Pac-12 Network broadcast).

Cal and USC split the two regular season duals in 2019. Bears won 4-3 in the unofficial match but USC won 4-2 in the one that counted for the regular season.

Cal beat ASU and UCLA to make the final. USC beat Washington and Stanford to make it.

[4] No. 33 California (14-11) defeated [1] No. 8/13 UCLA (17-5), 4-1

April 26, 2019, in Ojai, Calif.

Libbey Park

Doubles

1. No. 4 Maxime Cressy/Keegan Smith (UCLA) def. No. 31 Jacob Brumm/Yuta Kikuchi (Cal), 6-0

2. Paul Barretto/Can Kaya (Cal) def. Govind Nanda/Connor Rapp (UCLA), 7-5

3. Ben Draper/Jack Molloy (Cal) def. Bryce Pereira/Patrick Zahraj (UCLA), 7-6(4)*

Cal won the doubles point

Order of Finish – 1, 2, 3**Clinched the doubles point

Singles

1. No. 17 Maxime Cressy (UCLA) vs. Yuta Kikuchi (Cal), 7-5, 3-3 DNF

2. No. 42 Keegan Smith (UCLA) vs. Jack Molloy (Cal), 6-4, 5-4 DNF

3. Paul Barretto (Cal) def. No. 52 Govind Nanda (UCLA), 6-4, 6-4

4. Patrick Zahraj (UCLA) def. Ben Draper (Cal), 6-2, 6-3

5. Jacob Brumm (Cal) def. Ben Goldeberg (UCLA), 6-3, 6-2^

6. Bjorn Hoffmann (Cal) def. Eric Hahn (UCLA), 6-1, 6-2

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Pac-12 Final: Cal (14-11) vs. USC (17-5)

Where: Libbey Park (Ojai, CA)

When: 3 pm PT

TV: Pac-12 Networks

Likely matchups:

Doubles:

1: No. 31 Jacob Brumm/Yuta Kikuchi (Cal) vs. No. 11 Holt/R. Smith (USC)

2. Paul Barretto/Can Kaya (Cal) vs. Jaede/Verboven (USC)

3. Ben Draper/Jack Molloy (Cal) vs. Cukierman/T. Smith (USC)

Singles:

1. Yuta Kikuchi (Cal) vs. No.10 Brandon Holt (USC)

2. Jack Molloy (Cal) vs. No.20 Daniel Cukierman (USC

3. Paul Barretto (Cal) vs. No.27 Laurens Verboven (USC)

4. Ben Draper (Cal) vs. No.77 Logan Smith (USC)

5. Jacob Brumm (Cal) vs. Jake Sands (USC)

6. Bjorn Hoffmann (Cal) vs. No.61 Tanner Smith (USC)

GO BEARS!