May 5, 1997
Cal Travels to NCAA Regionals
THIS WEEK
May 9-11
at NCAA Regionals
Malibu, CA
All Day
THE MATCH-UP:
On Friday, May 9, at 1 p.m., the No.
5-seeded Cal men's tennis team takes on the No. 4-seed Arizona State Sun
Devils at the NCAA Region VIII Championships in Malibu. The winner will
play No. 1-seeded Pepperdine at 1:00 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals,
with the finals scheduled for Sunday at noon.
THE LINEUPS:
Head coach Peter Wright has yet to set a
lineup for this week's matches, however, look for Chris Santoso, Alex
Sueur, Nathan Jackmon, David Sutton, Minh Le and Brian Fernando to see
action in singles play. The doubles lineups look to be Sutton/Santoso,
Jackmon/Sueur and Le/Gross.
PREVIOUS MATCH UPDATE:
The Cal men's tennis team is
coming off a strong showing at the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament, April
23-27. Santoso and Jackmon advanced to the round 16 in the Pac-10
Championship singles draw, while Le made it through to the semifinals of
the Pac-10 Invitational draw before being eliminated by teammate Brian
Fernando. Fernando, however, dropped a close three-set match to
Stanford's Charles Hoeveler in the semifinals, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
In doubles action, Sutton and Santoso ousted USC's Gottesleben and Mueller in the round of 16 of the Championship doubles draw before loosing a three-setter the semifinals to UCLA's Kim and Lin, 4-6, 7-6, 7-5. Le and Gross met with success in the Invitational doubles draw before falling to Samayoa and Zaman of UCLA, 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals.
THE COMPETITION:
In the first round of NCAA regional competition, the Bears will face the Arizona State Sun Devils. ASU, seeded No. 4, boasts a 12-9 record on the year. The Sun Devils are currently ranked No. 39 by the ITA in the Spring No. 5 poll released April 29. In dual match competition this season, Cal split with ASU. On March 28, the Bears defeated the Sun Devils, 4-3 in Berkeley, before ASU defeated Cal by an identical score on April 12 in Tempe, AZ.
Should the Bears advance to the semifinals on Saturday, the opponent would be No. 12 Pepperdine. The No. 1 seed at regionals, the Waves finished the season with a 20-6 record. Teams in the other half of the regional bracket include; No. 2-seeded UCSB, No. 3-seeded Washington and No. 6 seeded UC Irvine.
CAL IN THE RANKINGS: The Bears are currently the No. 42-ranked team in the ITA's Rolex Spring No. 5 rankings, released April 29. Individually, Cal players rank as follows:
Doubles
32. Chris Santoso (so.)/David Sutton (jr.)
THE COACHES:
Peter Wright enters his fourth year at the helm of the Cal program after spending last summer in Atlanta as head coach of the Irish Olympic tennis team. The ninth coach and fourth alumnus to lead the Bears, he boasts a 48-40 (.545) career record and earned Wilson/ITA Regional Coach of the Year honors in 1994. Wright is assisted by associate head coach Cordell Ho, who is also in his fourth year with the Bears.
