Bears Back In NCAA Championship

Sophomore Carl Emil Overbeck is one of many Bears who will make his NCAA team tournament debut on Saturday in Michigan.

MTEN5/1/2023 9:13 PM | By: Cal Athletics

BERKELEY – The California men’s tennis program returned to the postseason on Monday when the NCAA announced that the 29th-ranked Golden Bears would face 33rd-ranked Louisiana State in the first round of the NCAA Championship in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Cal (12-10) takes on the Tigers (14-10) on Saturday at 10 a.m. EDT at the University of Michigan’s Varsity Tennis Center.
 
The host and seventh-ranked Wolverines (24-4) play 73rd-ranked Toledo (18-5) on Saturday at 1 p.m. EDT, with Saturday’s winners taking on each other in the second round on Sunday at 1 p.m. EDT. That winner advances to the super-regional round, at a campus site TBA, on either May 12 or 13.
 
After the super regional, which is slated to take place on May 12 or 13 at campus sites TBA, the remainder of the NCAA team tournament will be played at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida, from May 17-20.
 
Cal’s at-large berth gives the Bears their first NCAA Championship appearance since 2019 and gives Kris Kwinta, in his second season as the Peter Wright Director of Men’s Tennis, his first foray into the team tournament as Cal’s head coach – not including coaching Yuta Kikuchi and Carl Emil Overbeck in the NCAA Doubles Championship last season.
 
“The postseason is ruled by a different set of rules,” Kwinta said. “It’s like March Madness for us. Anything can happen, and I think we have proven over the season we are a dangerous team. We are capable of battling the best in the country, and we have the firepower to do so. Respect everybody and fear no one.”
 
Cal has beaten six teams in the NCAA tournament field in Pac-12 champion and 10th-seeded USC, Stanford, Arizona State, UCLA, San Diego and American Athletic Conference champ SMU. Only the Bears and 14th-seeded Arizona defeated the Trojans in Pac-12 Conference play this season.
 
“We take nothing for granted,” Kwinta added. “We’re happy to be in the tournament, after a hiatus of a few years. It’s exciting for the guys. We have a few days to practice, get ourselves together and get on the road and play our best tennis.”
 
The Bears have an all-time NCAA tournament record of…