Cal Meets LSU In NCAA First Round

Ryder Jackson and the 2022-23 Bears have brought the Cal program back to the NCAA team tournament for the first time since 2019.

BERKELEY – The 29th-ranked California men’s tennis team starts the NCAA Championship on Saturday at 10 a.m. EDT/7 a.m. PDT, when the 12-10 Golden Bears take on the 34th-ranked Louisiana State Tigers (14-10) in the first round of the NCAA Championship.
 
This marks Cal’s 38th appearance in the team tournament.
 
The Bears and Tigers will play at the University of Michigan’s Varsity Tennis Center, with the seventh-ranked, seventh-seeded Wolverines (24-4) also hosting Toledo (18-5) in Saturday’s first round. The two first-round winners in Ann Arbor meet on Sunday at 1 p.m. EDT/ 10 a.m. PDT in the second round, with that winner advancing to the NCAA Super Regional on May 12 or 13 on a campus site TBA.
 
The live stream and live scores link for all the matches in Ann Arbor is available here. Fans can also keep track of the Bears on Twitter @CalMensTennis.
 
After the super regional, the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida, will host the remainder of the postseason – including the team tournament’s quarterfinals, semifinals and final from May 18-20 as well as the NCAA Singles Championship and the NCAA Doubles Championship. The individual tournaments are slated to run from May 22-27, with Cal graduate student Yuta Kikuchi named as one of the 64 players who will compete in NCAA singles.
 
Kikuchi, Hjorth Earn All-Pac-12 Honors                                    
Cal’s Yuta Kikuchi and Philip Hjorth earned All-Pac-12 honors two days ahead of the Golden Bears’ NCAA Championship opener, the conference announced on Thursday. Kikuchi, a graduate student ranked 27th in this week’s ITA singles poll, is on the first team, while Hjorth, a fifth-year senior, claimed honorable mention.
 
This is the third All-Pac-12 honor for Kikuchi, who collected second-team recognition in 2022 and in 2019, when he was also named the Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year and the ITA Northwest Region Rookie of the Year. He brings a 16-8 record, including a 12-6 mark on court one, into the postseason. The Yahaba, Japan, native will compete in the NCAA Singles Championship for the first time in late May. He also competed in the NCAA…