April 10, 2000
Berkeley, Calif. -
After dropping two matches this past weekend to USC and UCLA, the No. 33 California men's tennis team (10-6, 3-5) hosts Utah on Tues., Apr. 11 at 1: 30 p.m. at Hellman Tennis Center before heading south to take on No. 63 Arizona State on Fri. Apr. 14 and No. 55 Arizona on Sat. Apr. 15.
A LOOK AT UTAH: Utah comes into Tuesday's match in the middle of a three-match road trip with stops at Fresno State, Cal and Stanford. The Utes have not started the trip well, losing to No. 12 Fresno State, 6-1, Sun., Apr. 9. So far this year Utah is 8-11 on the year and 2-3 in Mountain West Conference play. The Bears hold the lead in the overall series, 21-6-1, including a 6-1 defeat of the Utes last season.
A LOOK AT ARIZONA STATE: Arizona State heads into this week's match 6-10 overall and 1-4 in Pac-10 play. The Sun Devils have lost six of their last seven matches and will face Stanford on Fri., before facing the Bears on Sat. In their previous meeting this year on Mar. 31, the Bears narrowly escaped with a 4-3 win. Tops for ASU this year is senior Alex Osterrieth who has gone 16-12 at the No. 1 spot. Cal holds the overall lead in the series, 35-10.
A LOOK AT ARIZONA: This is the second meeting between these two teams this year with the Bears taking a 5-2 win over the Wildcats on Apr. 1. This year Arizona is 8-9 overall and enters this week coming off losses to University of Washington and University of Oregon last weekend. The Bears hold the overall lead in the series, 32-10.
SACRAMENTO STATE MATCH IN REVIEW: The Bears won their fourth-straight match on Apr. 4th when they defeated the visiting Hornets, 5-2. Cal made a strong showing in doubles, sweeping all three matches to win the doubles point. In singles, the Bears picked up four of the six matches to clinch a Cal win. Freshman John Paul Fruttero looked particularly impressive as he returned to the No. 1 spot where he defeated Sac. St's Chris Smith, 7-6, 6-4 to win his third straight match.
USC MATCH IN REVIEW: After winning four straight matches, the Bears lost their first match since March 25th when they were defeated, 5-2 by No. 18 USC. USC prevailed in the doubles portion of the match, taking two of three matches to win the doubles point. Cal's only doubles victory of the day came on court two where Robert Kowalczyk and Ben Miles defeated Patrick Gottelesben, and Daniel Langre, 8-5. Things didn't get much better for the Bears in singles as the Trojans took four of six matches to clinch the win. Cal's only singles victories came at the hands of John Paul Fruttero and junior Adrian Barnes who were victorious in the No. 2 and No. 6 spots respectively.
UCLA MATCH IN REVIEW: After losing to USC Friday afternoon, the Bears lost their second match in two days to the top-ranked UCLA Bruins, 6-1. Things began well for the Bears as they won two of three doubles matches to score their only point of the afternoon. Junior duo Erik Dmytruk and Scott Kintz notched one of their biggest wins of the season, upsetting UCLA's fourth-ranked tandem of Brandon Kramer and Jong-Min Lee, 8-3. With the win the duo moves to a team-best 21-8 record on the year. In singles play the Bruins came from behind to sweep all six matches, ensuring a UCLA victory.
BARNES RETURNS TO COURTS: After missing eight matches due to surgery to repair an injured shoulder, junior Adrian Barnes returned to the courts this past week in winning style. A native of Cambridge, England, Barnes made his return in last week's match against Sacramento St., defeating Benny Andersson, 6-7, 6-3, 6-3. He then played in the Bears match on Fri. against USC, pulling out a 7-5, 7-5 win over Parker Collins before sitting out Sat.'s match against UCLA.
