BERKELEY – The 59th-ranked California men’s tennis team put up a fight against No. 20 Stanford in Saturday’s regular-season finale, but the Golden Bears wound up falling to the Cardinal, 4-1, in front of a good crowd on hand for the Big Slam at the Hellman Tennis Complex.
Cal ended the regular season with a 10-9 record (3-3 Pac-12). Stanford improved to 15-5 (7-1) and claimed at least a share of the Pac-12 Conference regular-season title.
Prior to the match and in front of nearly 1,000 fans, Cal held its Senior Day ceremony to celebrate the careers of Ryder Jackson and Lucas Magnaudet and honored the life and career of late alumnus Jim McManus on McManus Legends Day. Fuddruckers was also on hand to provide free hamburgers at Hellman.
The Bears trailed 1-0 after Stanford took the doubles point, with the Cardinal clinching when Aryan Chaudhary and Harsh Hemang Parikh beat Cal’s Carl Emil Overbeck and Qian Sun, 6-4, on court three.
Cal and Overbeck bounced back in singles, with the junior topping the 57th-ranked Samir Banerjee, 6-4, 6-4, on court two to tie the overall match 1-1.
But the match was soon untied again when Jackson, ranked 88th, lost to the 19th-ranked Nishesh Basavareddy, 6-4, 6-4, on court one to give Stanford a 2-1 lead.
Three of the remaining four matches went to three sets apiece, which contributed to the match running over three hours. Court four finished in straight sets, though, with Cal sophomore Qian Sun dropping a close 7-5, 7-5 result to Kyle Kang. The Bears trailed 3-1.
Cal needed to win the last three matches to capture the Big Slam. Magnaudet…
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