No. 20 Bears Bash Tigers 6-1

Yuta Kikuchi led the Bears to a dominant win over the Tigers.

MTEN2/2/2023 7:20 PM | By: Cal Athletics

BERKELEY – Yuta Kikuchi clinched the No. 20 Cal men’s tennis team’s 6-1 win over Pacific and teamed with Philip Hjorth to clinch the doubles point on Thursday afternoon at the Hellman Tennis Complex.
 
The Golden Bears improved their record to 4-2 and Pacific fell to 1-2 after the nonconference match.
 
“I’m really happy with the performance,” said Kris Kwinta, Cal’s Peter Wright Director of Men’s Tennis. “We spoke about energy levels and how we prepare ourselves mentally and that we would come out as a group together, and we made some adjustments and improvements since the ITA Kickoff Weekend. I was very happy with how fired up and how together we were all throughout the match. It was a good match for us.”
 
The teams split the first two doubles matches. Ryder Jackson and Lucas Magnaudet gave Cal the early edge when they defeated Peter Alam and Manroop Saini, 6-3, on court one. After a Tigers win on court three, Kikuchi and Hjorth – a former Tiger – secured the doubles point for the Bears with a 6-3 victory over Ran Amar and Terence Das on court two.
 
In singles, Cal freshman John Kim – playing in his first college dual match – earned his first college singles win in a dual match when he knocked off Coby McCaig, 6-1, 6-0, on court six to give the Bears a 2-0 lead. Jackson, ranked 52nd, posted a 6-1, 6-0 win over the 120nd-ranked Amar on court two to make the score 3-0. Kikuchi then served out his match. Alam returned his serve, the Japan native hit a big forehand and the Tiger hit a backhand return into the net to complete the Cal veteran’s 6-1, 6-4 win.
 
Cal won two of the final three matches to wrap up the day. One of those singles wins was Hjorth’s 6-3, 6-1 result over Rodeia, with the fifth-year senior winning in doubles and singles against the team he played for in his first two seasons.
 
The Bears next play on Feb. 25, when they host San Francisco at 9:30 a.m. and then play at UC Davis at 2 p.m.
 
No. 20 California (4-2) defeats Pacific (1-2), 6-1
Feb. 2, 2023, in Berkeley, Calif.
Hellman Tennis Complex
 
Doubles
1. Ryder Jackson/Lucas Magnaudet (Cal) def. Peter Alam/Manroop Saini (Pacific), 6-3
2. Philip Hjorth/Yuta Kikuchi (Cal)…