Feb. 3, 2012

Box Score (PDF)

BERKELEY - The 13th-ranked California men's tennis team (3-1) suffered its first loss of the season as No. 9 UCLA (5-0) came up with an 11th-hour 4-3 win at the Hellman Tennis Complex on Friday, Feb. 3. Tied at three, Bruin senior Nick Meister provided UCLA with the clinching point from the top court as he completed the day's fifth three-set singles match in a 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 victory over senior Nick Andrews.

"That was a great college match," said head coach Peter Wright, "and when it comes down to your two team captains playing against each other in a three-set match to decide it, we couldn't have asked for a better guy to be out there for us."

The Golden Bears swept the doubles matches to take the first point of the day, and went up, 2-0, on a 6-3, 6-1 win by senior Ahmed Ismail at No. 6 singles over Alex Brigham. However, UCLA secured its points off wins in four out of five three-set singles matches.

"It's obviously disappointing," said Wright. "That's a great UCLA team that came out to play. What we've learned today, though, is that we know that we're a good team. We've got a few things to work on, after this, and that's what we'll focus on. You get a little time to stew over this one, and then you have to flush it away and get on to the next one."

Cal's fifth-ranked team of Andrews and junior Christoffer Konigsfeldt fired the first shot of the day when they came up with an 8-1 win against Meister and Adrien Puget at the top doubles court. Cal sealed the doubles point when junior Riki McLachlan and senior Tommie Murphy took out Warren Hardie and Clay Thompson, 8-4, at No. 3 doubles.

With the point decided, Cal completed the sweep at court two where its 27th-ranked tandem of junior Carlos Cueto and sophomore Ben McLachlan earned a 7-4 tiebreaker win against Brigham and Marcos Giron.

Though Ismail's win gave the Bears a two-point cushion, the Bruins roared back to tie the match on a pair of wins from courts five and two. At No. 5 singles, Dennis Mkrtchian took a 6-0 win against freshman Gregory Bayane in the first set, but slipped up, 6-4, to go to a third set. Mkrtchian regained his footing in the final set to win, 6-1. At court two, No. 92-ranked Thompson rebounded from a 6-0 loss to Cueto in the first set to win, 6-4, 6-3, in the second and third.

Cal went ahead, once more, when No. 42-ranked Ben McLachlan earned his team-leading 12th win of the year; a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 victory over No. 94 Puget at court four. But UCLA continued to plug away and got the tying point from court three where No. 86-ranked Giron took out Konigsfeldt in three sets, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, with a 7-3 score in the first-set tiebreaker.

At the top court, Andrews and Meister had just opened their third set. After falling, 6-3, in the first, Andrews denied Meister's second-set comeback bid in the tiebreaker and held on for a 7-5 win. Meister broke the Cal serve in the third set to go up, 2-1, and went on to win, 6-1, to complete the 4-3 Bruin victory.

The Bears will turn around to face the top-ranked three-time defending NCAA champion USC Trojans (5-0) who defeated No. 6 Stanford, 7-0, earlier today. Please visit CalBears.com for links to live scoring and streaming video.

No. 9 UCLA 4, No. 13 California 3
Hellman Tennis Complex | Berkeley, Calif.
Friday, Feb. 3, 2012
Doubles
1. No. 5 Andrews/Konigsfeldt (CAL) def. Meister/Puget (UCLA); 8-1
2. No. 27 Cueto/B. McLachlan (CAL) def. Brigham/Giron (UCLA); 7-6(4)
3. R. McLachlan/Murphy (CAL) def. Hardie/Thompson (UCLA); 8-4
Order of finish: 1, 3*, 2 (California wins doubles point)
Singles
1. Nick Meister (UCLA) def. Nick Andrews (CAL); 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1
2. No. 92 Clay Thompson (UCLA) def. Carlos Cueto (CAL); 0-6, 6-4, 6-3
3. No. 86 Marcos Giron (UCLA) def. Christoffer Konigsfeldt (CAL); 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4
4. No. 42 Ben McLachlan (CAL) def. No. 94 Adrien Puget (UCLA); 6-2, 4-6, 6-1
5. Dennis Mkrtchian (UCLA) def. Gregory Bayane (CAL); 6-0, 4-6, 6-1
6. Ahmed Ismail (CAL) def. Alex Brigham (UCLA); 6-3, 6-1
Order of finish: 6, 5, 2, 4, 3, 1*