Cal men\u2019s tennis walked away from one of its most demanding weekends with yet another split result after taking a 4-1 win over then-No. 23 NC State before losing to then-No. 3 Wake Forest.<\/p>\n
The win over the Wolfpack marked the Bears\u2019 first top-25 victory of the season, and it came largely from a strong start in doubles. Cal secured the opening point with wins on courts one and two, including a 6-2 victory from juniors Alex Aney and Timofey Stepanov over the nation\u2019s then-No. 11 doubles pair.<\/p>\n
That early point gave Cal a foothold in the match. Even after dropping the first singles point, sophomore Bernardo Munk Mesa responded with a straight-set win on court four, and Stepanov followed on court two to give the Bears a 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutynski closed the match on court one with a straight-set upset over then-No. 21 Martin Borisiouk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came out with great energy, especially in doubles,\u201d Lechno-Wasiutynski said. \u201cWe won the first point, and then you could feel that the energy was super high.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even within his own match, Lechno-Wasiutynski showed a mix of composure and adjustment.<\/p>\n
After leading 5-1 in the first set, he was pushed to a deuce point at 5-4, forcing him to battle to close it out. He then settled into a clearer tactical rhythm in the second.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the middle of the second set, I found a tactic that was working well, and I just kept doing that,\u201d Lechno-Wasiutynski said. \u201cWe are glad that we finally managed to win these matches because we are capable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s match against Wake Forest followed a different pattern. The Bears were edged out in doubles across three close courts and were forced into an uphill battle for the remainder of the match.<\/p>\n
The Demon Deacons extended their lead with wins on courts five and six in singles before Lechno-Wasiutynski got Cal on the board with a straight-set win on court one against then-No. 22 singles player DK Suresh Ekambaram. Munk Mesa added another point on court four, but the Bears could not close the gap and inevitably fell 4-2.<\/p>\n
Against Wake Forest\u2019s deeper lineup, small margins became more significant.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgainst this type of opponent, everything has to click,\u201d Lechno-Wasiutynski said. \u201cIt clicked on some of the courts, but everything has to be perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the weekend showed that Cal can compete with ranked opponents when it establishes early momentum and executes in key moments. Bears such as Lechno-Wasiutynski showed promise, as the sophomore picked up two singles wins against ranked competition across the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m capable of playing at a really high level,\u201d Lechno-Wasiutynski said. \u201cThis weekend just showed me that I can do it in college as well. So I\u2019ll work hard and try to do it again next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lechno-Wasiutynski\u2019s performance did not go unnoticed, as he was named ACC Player of the Week following the weekend\u2019s results.<\/p>\n
With the regular season nearing its end, Cal now turns its attention to the Big Slam against No. 17 Stanford at home. The rivalry contest will also mark Senior Day for Tiago Silva.<\/p>\n
The Bears will welcome a familiar face in the Cardinal\u2019s graduate transfer and Berkeley local Alex Chang, who transferred to Stanford from Cal last year after he was one of the Bears\u2019 top performers throughout his career.<\/p>\n
After a weekend that showed both their ability to compete with ranked opponents and the level required to beat the nation\u2019s best, the Bears will look to put together a more complete performance against their rival.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is pumped to play against Stanford, and we\u2019re going to give our best, especially on our Senior Day,\u201d Lechno-Wasiutynski said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to fight, and hopefully people are going to come and support us. Hopefully everyone will be loud and we perform at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cal men\u2019s tennis walked away from one of its most demanding weekends with yet another split result after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[5599,210996,224842,1442,76162,210994,224841,49,95402,210993,48,49940,224840,211000,211003,138251,82,28770,593,210997,211001,35438,224839],"class_list":{"0":"post-590325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-acc","9":"tag-alex-aney","10":"tag-alex-chang","11":"tag-bears","12":"tag-berkeley","13":"tag-bernardo-munk-mesa","14":"tag-big-slam","15":"tag-ca","16":"tag-cal","17":"tag-cal-mens-tennis","18":"tag-canada","19":"tag-cardinal","20":"tag-demon-deacons","21":"tag-fryderyk-lechno-wasiutynski","22":"tag-hellman-tennis-complex","23":"tag-nc-state","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-stanford","26":"tag-tennis","27":"tag-tiago-silva","28":"tag-timofey-stepanov","29":"tag-wake-forest","30":"tag-wolfpack"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590325","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=590325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}