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Cal’s Alex Aney won in singles on the last day of the Aggie Invite in Davis.
DAVIS – The California men’s tennis team completed a long week of competition when three Golden Bears competed on the last day of the Aggie Invitational at UC Davis.
In extra singles matches, Cal sophomore Alex Aney defeated Cal Poly’s Bastiaan Westrate 6-2, 7-5, sophomore Jonathan Irwanto fell to Sacramento State’s Henry Lamchinniah 6-3, 3-6, 10-5, and freshman Bernardo Munk Mesa lost to Santa Clara’s Lukas Maskow 6-3, 6-7(4), 11-9 at the Marya Welch Tennis Center.
Last week, Cal also sent numerous Golden Bears to the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the 13th-ranked pair of Mikey Wright and Alex Chang reached the quarterfinals of the doubles main draw and were one win away from qualifying for the NCAA Doubles Championship. The 25th-ranked Carl Emil Overbeck and Theo Dean lost in the round of 32 in main draw doubles. In main draw singles, the 44th-ranked Dean advanced to the round of 32 and the 56th-ranked Overbeck – who reached the main draw through qualifying – fell in the round of 64. Cal’s Derrick Chen and Timofey Stepanov were part of the pre-qualifying singles field in Tulsa on Sept. 21 but didn’t move onto qualifying.
“I don’t remember the last time I had two singles players and two doubles teams in the main draw of the ITA All-American Championships,” said Kris Kwinta, the Peter Wright Director of Men’s Tennis. “Definitely, collectively, we’re doing a great job. The guys took advantage of opportunities there and are happy with their performances. Yes, there are still things they can improve on. That’s the goal – always to improve. But we’re on the right path, and I’m very happy with how they performed. They were competitive, they were composed and they played in hard-fought matches, so I’m proud of that.”
Aney, Irwanto and Munk Mesa were the Bears who played in Davis, and they had varying degrees of success.
“On the other hand, the Aggie Invite was very revealing. You know how being young sometimes is difficult for you as an athlete? You put these mental blocks in your head, so there’s a lot of battling yourself, not so much opponents, but battling expectations. You’re battling your ego and…
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