Oct. 25, 2011
ITA Rankings | USTA/ITA Northwest Regional Homa Page
SEATTLE - The fourth-seeded California men's tennis doubles team of junior Carlos Cueto and sophomore Ben McLachlan triumphed in the title match of the 2011 USTA/ITA Northwest Regional Championships on Tue., Oct. 25, at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. The Golden Bears also took home the team trophy for securing the most wins of any participating program.
By virtue of their victory in the final, Cueto and McLachlan receive an automatic berth and will join Cal's fifth-ranked duo of senior Nick Andrews and junior Christoffer Konigsfeldt, next weekend (Nov. 3-6), at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships in New York. This is the first time in program history that the Bears will send two doubles teams to the indoor championships.
Cueto and McLachlan earned their team-leading 10th victory by defeating Stanford's tandem of Walker Kehrer and Robert Stineman in today's title match. The two teams traded barbs to an eight-all tie to force a tiebreaker. In it, the Cardinal and the Bears stayed neck and neck, but Cal's duo pulled away, at the end, to post a 10-8 win and secure the second consecutive regional doubles title for the program.
In a little bit of history repeating, the Bears experienced the same overall results as they did, a season ago. Last year, Konigsfeldt found himself in the singles final after defeating a teammate in the semifinals: Cueto. On the same day, he and Andrews also played for the doubles crown. Konigsfeldt fell in his singles match but won his doubles match, the same way that McLachlan did, today.
In the single bracket, McLachlan had his five-match winning streak snapped when he came up on the short end of a close three-set loss to the tournament's top-seed; No. 14-ranked Stanford senior Ryan Thacher.
Thacher took the first set, 6-2, but McLachlan showed his mettle and bit back with a 6-2 win of his own in the second set. The third was much closer than the previous two sets, but Thacher edged McLachlan for the final two games to claim a 7-5 victory and capture the singles title.
Four Bears will be in action, this weekend (Oct. 28-30). Senior Tommie Murphy will lead the way as he and freshmen Chase Melton, Andrew Scholnick, and Andrew Pises, head to Moraga, Calif., for the 2011 Saint Mary's Gael Classic at the Timothy Korth Tennis Complex.
For more information on the 2011 USTA/ITA Regional Championships, please visit www.itatennis.com. For complete schedules, draws, and results, visit the tournament home page.
2011 USTA/ITA Northwest Regional Championships
Nordstrom Tennis Center | Seattle, Wash.
Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011
Singles Finals
[1] No. 14 Ryan Thacher (STAN) def. [7] Ben McLachlan (CAL), 6-2, 2-6, 7-5
Doubles Finals
[4] Cueto/B. McLachlan (CAL) def. Kehrer/Stineman (STAN), 9-8(8)
