Cal Opens Season In Battle In The Bay Classic

Carl Emil Overbeck – who previously won two doubles titles in the Battle in the Bay Classic – competes in the annual San Francisco tournament starting Thursday at the California Tennis Club.

MTEN9/10/2024 7:32 PM | By: Cal Athletics

The California men’s tennis team opens the 2024-25 season in the Battle in the Bay Classic starting Thursday and ending Sunday, with the Golden Bears co-hosting the annual event with the California Tennis Club at the venerable club in San Francisco.
 
Cal’s Carl Emil Overbeck, Alex Chang, Derrick Chen, Timofey Stepanov and Theo Dean – a graduate transfer from Yale – will compete in the singles field of 32. The Golden Bears’ pairs of Overbeck and Dean, Chang and Mikey Wright, and Chen and Stepanov will play in the 16-team doubles field. Overbeck, a senior, paired with former Cal teammate Yuta Kikuchi to win doubles titles at the Battle in the Bay Classic in 2021 and 2022.
 
Last Time In The Battle In The Bay Classic
Carl Emil Overbeck had won the previous two doubles titles at the Battle in the Bay Classic, but in 2023 the third time wasn’t a charm for the Golden Bear, as Overbeck and Alex Chang fell in the doubles semifinals Sept. 23 at the California Tennis Club. The Bears came close to advancing but lost to Arizona’s Herman Hoeyerral and Colton Smith, 8-7(1). Also on Sept. 23, Chang dropped a 2-6, 6-3, 10-8 match to Baylor’s Luc Koenig in the consolation singles quarterfinals.
 
2023-24 Review
Cal completed the 2023-24 season with a 10-10 dual-match record, including a 3-3 record in the Bears’ last season in the Pac-12 Conference. The Bears last competed against Arizona State on April 25 in the Pac-12 Championship in Ojai. The 58th-ranked Bears got a singles win from Lucas Magnaudet against the Sun Devils at Libbey Park, but the fifth-seeded Golden Bears lost to the fourth-seeded Sun Devils 4-1 and exited the conference tournament.
 
Highlights of the dual-match season included three separate three-match unbeaten streaks. The first streak included two wins (5-0 and 5-2) over UC Davis on Feb. 3 and then a 4-0 victory over Pepperdine. The second streak featured wins over Oregon (4-1), Washington (4-1) and San Francisco (4-0), with now former Bear Lucas Magnaudet clinching each victory. The final streak included wins versus…