Cal men\u2019s tennis entered Sunday\u2019s matchup against No. 36 SMU riding the momentum of two dominant home victories, but the Golden Bears ultimately fell short in yet another tightly contested 4-3 loss at Hellman Tennis Complex.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the weekend, Cal defeated Boston College 7-0 and Saint Mary\u2019s 6-1 in a Friday double header, improving to 11-7 overall before facing one of the ACC\u2019s strongest teams.<\/p>\n
The Bears quickly set the tone against the Eagles as they secured the doubles point with wins from sophomore duo Bernardo Munk Mesa and Paris Pouatcha, along with junior Alex Aney and senior Tiago Silva. Aney and Silva\u2019s win marked their first victory together as a doubles pairing.<\/p>\n
While the Bears were the stronger team on paper, they remained focused and did not get complacent.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Cal head coach Kris Kwinta) really wanted us to focus on going out there with a mission and a goal,\u201d Pouatcha said. \u201cNot just knowing that we\u2019re maybe a little bit better than them on paper, but trying to work on things and get better at things that we lack.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bears carried that momentum into singles play, where Silva earned Cal\u2019s second point with a 6-3, 6-2 victory, while Pouatcha followed with a dominant 6-4, 6-0 win. Junior Lenn Luemkemann ultimately clinched the match for the Bears with a 6-4, 6-1 victory, while additional wins from freshman Winston Lee, sophomore Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutynski and junior Timofey Stepanov completed the sweep.<\/p>\n
Later in the afternoon, Cal again secured the doubles point against Saint Mary\u2019s. Munk Mesa and Pouatcha improved their undefeated doubles record with another 6-1 victory, while Stepanov and Lechno-Wasiutynski sealed the point with a 6-3 win.<\/p>\n
In singles play, Stepanov won 6-3, 6-1, while Luemkemann added a 6-2, 6-2 victory. Pouatcha clinched the match with a 6-1, 7-5 win, securing the Bears\u2019 second victory of the day.<\/p>\n
However, as expected, Sunday\u2019s matchup against SMU proved far more dramatic.<\/p>\n
The doubles point often sets the tone in college tennis, and the Mustangs capitalized on that advantage Sunday. SMU claimed the opening point, snapping Munk Mesa and Pouatcha\u2019s doubles winning streak and putting early pressure on the Bears.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe doubles point is very important,\u201d Pouatcha said. \u201c(The Mustangs) are a team that\u2019s very good at doubles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite dropping the opening point, the Bears battled back in singles play to keep the match competitive.<\/p>\n
With singles wins by Munk Mesa, Pouatcha and Luemkemann, Cal evened the match at 3-3, leaving the outcome to be decided on the final court.<\/p>\n
Stepanov fought through a tight battle after dropping the first set and responding with a second-set win to force a third. The final set remained close throughout, with several tense points and close calls from the chair umpire heightening the atmosphere at Hellman Tennis Complex. Ultimately, Stepanov fell 7-5 in the deciding set, sealing the Mustangs\u2019 4-3 victory.<\/p>\n
Cal also saw a strong performance on court one, as Lechno-Wasiutynski split the first two sets with No. 2 Trevor Svajda, forcing the match into a decisive third set before ultimately falling. The tight battle against one of college tennis\u2019s elite players underscored the Bears\u2019 ability to challenge some of the top talent in the country.<\/p>\n
The narrow defeat on Sunday served as another example of how close the Bears are to breaking through against elite competition. Cal has proven it can battle with top-ranked teams, but converting those tense moments into match-clinching victories will be key moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cal men\u2019s tennis entered Sunday\u2019s matchup against No. 36 SMU riding the momentum of two dominant home victories,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[5599,210996,1442,210994,118760,49,95402,210993,48,211000,168664,211003,211002,210998,6398,210995,173381,6397,82,593,210997,211001,210999],"class_list":["post-540216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-acc","tag-alex-aney","tag-bears","tag-bernardo-munk-mesa","tag-boston-college","tag-ca","tag-cal","tag-cal-mens-tennis","tag-canada","tag-fryderyk-lechno-wasiutynski","tag-gaels","tag-hellman-tennis-complex","tag-kris-kwinta","tag-lenn-luemkemann","tag-mustangs","tag-paris-pouatcha","tag-saint-marys","tag-smu","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tiago-silva","tag-timofey-stepanov","tag-winston-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}