Feb. 20, 2012
2011-12 Records 
| ITA Indoor Championship Central 
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - In a fight to the finish, No. 8 UCLA (10-1) held off the No. 13-ranked California men's tennis team (5-4) to earn its second 4-3 victory in as many meetings, this season. This time, the Golden Bears met the Bruins in a consolation match of the 2012 ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships at the Boar's Head Tennis Club. Cal and UCLA will meet once more in a Pac-12 dual before season's end.
Like they did in the first meeting, the Bears opened up the day by grabbing the first point on a pair of doubles victories; this time, at courts two and three. Cal's 16th-ranked duo of junior Carlos Cueto and sophomore Ben McLachlan set things off with an 8-3 win against Alex Brigham and Marcos Giron at No. 2 doubles.
At the top court, the Bears' fourth-ranked tandem of senior Nick Andrews and junior Christoffer Konigsfeldt was facing an 8-7 deficit to Nick Meister and Adrien Puget, on serve, when their match was stopped. At court three, junior Riki McLachlan teamed with freshman Andrew Scholnick to seal the doubles point for the Bears on an 8-5 win against Warren Hardie and Clay Thompson.
Cal's advantage didn't last long as singles matches got under way. The Bruins won three matches in straight sets to go up, 3-1, before the Bears had a chance to answer back.
At the top court, No. 39 Meister defeated Andrews, 6-2, 6-2, to knot the dual at one-all. On the opposite end of the lineup, Dennis Mkrtchian gave UCLA a 2-1 lead on a 6-2, 6-3 win against senior Ahmed Ismail. The Bruins brought themselves to brink of victory on a win at court four where No. 104 Puget ousted Konigsfeldt, 6-3, 6-4.
With their backs against the wall, the Bears came to life to earn the next two points on wins at courts three and five to put the decisive point on court two. At No. 3 singles, No. 44-ranked Ben McLachlan went three sets to defeat No. 108 Giron. Though McLachlan gave up a 6-3 result in the first set, he came back to win the second, 7-5, in the tiebreaker, before his 6-4 score in the third brought Cal within a point, 3-2.
Freshman Gregory Bayane tacked up the tying point from court five where he edged Maxime Tabatruong, 7-3, in the first-set tiebreaker before earning a 7-5 win in the second set.
Over at court two, No. 67 Cueto and No. 70 Thompson were locked in a dead heat. Thompson won the first set, 7-5, but Cueto had replied to take a big 6-3 win in the second. The two combatants stayed neck-and-neck through the third, but Thompson prevailed by the narrowest of margins, 7-5, in the tiebreaker.
Cal will get one more shot at UCLA on Saturday, April 14, when the two teams meet at the Los Angeles Tennis Center in a Pac-12 dual set for 1 p.m. PT. The Bears are in action, next, at Stanford, on Saturday, Feb. 25, at 1 p.m., at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
Top-seeded USC and third-seeded Ohio State will meet in the ITA Indoor Championship final at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) on Monday, Feb. 20. Please visit www.itatennis.com for more information on the indoor championships.
No. 8 UCLA 4, No. 13 California 3
2012 ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championship | Consolation
Boar's Head Tennis Club | Charlottesville, Va.
Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012
Records: UCLA (10-1), California (5-4)
Doubles
1. Meister/Puget (UCLA) vs. No. 4 Andrews/Konigsfeldt (CAL); DNF
2. No. 16 Cueto/B. McLachlan (CAL) def. Brigham/Giron (UCLA); 8-3
3. R. McLachlan/Scholnick (CAL) def. Hardie/Thompson (UCLA); 8-5
Order of finish: 2, 3* (California wins doubles point)
Singles
1. No. 39 Nick Meister (UCLA) def. Nick Andrews (CAL); 6-2, 6-2
2. No. 70 Clay Thompson (UCLA) def. No. 67 Carlos Cueto (CAL); 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(5)
3. No. 44 Ben McLachlan (CAL) def. No. 108 Marcos Giron (UCLA); 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4
4. No. 104 Adrien Puget (UCLA) def. Christoffer Konigsfeldt (CAL); 6-3, 6-4
5. Gregory Bayane (CAL) def. Maxime Tabatruong (UCLA); 7-6(3), 7-5
6. Dennis Mkrtchian (UCLA) def. Ahmed Ismail (CAL); 6-2, 6-3
Order of finish: 1, 6, 4, 3, 5, 2*
