April 25, 2000
Berkeley, Calif. -
The California men's tennis team (12-10, 2-5 Pac-10) heads to Ojai, CA this week to participate in the Pac-10 Championships, April 27-30.
A LOOK AT THE PAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS: The Pac-10's eight men's teams will head to Ojai, CA this week to decided the league's doubles and singles champions. The championships are part of the larger Ojai Tournament, a tournament that is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The championships are broken into both an intercollegiate and invitational portion with the draws for each to be decided by a Pac-10 committee. At this time it is not known which Cal players will be placed in each division. The last Cal player to win a title at the Pac-10 Championships was in 1983 when Randy Nixon captured the singles crown. Cal has never won a doubles title at the Pac-10 Championships.
PEPPERDINE MATCH IN REVIEW: The Bears had a rough outing against fourth-ranked Pepperdine Apr. 19th, losing to the Waves, 5-2. The Bears fell behind 1-0 early as Pepperdine swept the doubles matches. The Bears only victories of the day came in singles where freshman Robert Kowalczyk downed Sebastien Graeff, 6-3, 6-3 in the No. 3 spot, and junior David Tzou captured a win in the No. 6 spot by defeating John Hui, 7-5, 6-1. After having lost to top-ranked Stanford the day before, the win moved the Waves to 23-2 on the year.
UCLA MATCH IN REVIEW: Although facing a fellow UC school, the UCLA Bruins showed no mercy against the Bears last Friday, Apr. 21, downing Cal 7-0 in a match played in Los Angeles. After losing the doubles point to the Bears two weeks ago, the Bruins were quick to take their vengeance, sweeping doubles play to claim the first point of the match. Things did not get better for the Bears from there as the second-ranked Bruins claimed straight sets victories on courts two through six. The only Cal player to push a match to three sets was freshman John Paul Fruttero who battled the Bruins Jong-Min Lee before losing, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. The win marks UCLA's second win over the Bears this season.
USC MATCH IN REVIEW: After facing UCLA Fri., the Bears traveled across town to face 16th-ranked USC Sat. afternoon. Things did not go as planned for the Bears as they were defeated by the Trojans, 6-1. The Bears lost the doubles point although Cal's 52nd-ranked tandem of Ben Miles and Robert Kowalczyk upset fourth-ranked Ryan Moore and Nicholas Rainey in the No. 1 spot, 8-4. The Bears only point of the day came at No. 1 singles where freshman John Paul Fruttero downed the Trojans Patrick Gottesleben, 7-6, 3-6, 6-1.
BEAR NOTES: The Bears super junior doubles duo of Scott Kintz and Erik Dmytruk are two wins shy of doubling their win total from last year. The duo has won 24 matches this year, almost twice their team-high 13 wins last season...Junior Erik Dmytruk has also surpassed his win total from last year as he has notched 16 wins to date as compared to 15 total last season...The Bears finish the year 2-5 in the Pac-10, identical to last year...Freshman John Paul Fruttero has shown why he was one of the nation's top recruits last year as he is the only Cal player to amass a winning record (12-9) in dual match play.
