Cal men's tennis

After a decent ITA Northwest Regionals run, six Bears will head to Cardinal territory to take part in the ITA Northwest Super Regionals.

Only one of the seven Bears playing Friday through Sunday qualified for the main draw, but the tournament served another purpose as well: Getting new players acclimated to the world of collegiate tennis.

The Bears will open their season with the Battle in the Bay Qualifier this weekend — a tournament that serves as the qualifier for the Battle in the Bay Classic, hosted annually in San Francisco.

While the rest of the team left the season behind after the Bears’ early exit in the NCAA team tournament, Cal’s Yuta Kikuchi still has a Herculean task against him: the NCAA singles championship.

After facing 25 opponents, playing 75 doubles and 150 singles matches this spring, Cal men’s tennis finished out its season with a second-round 4-0 loss to No. 7 Michigan at the NCAA championship.

Ranked No. 29 heading into nationals, Cal will travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and face No. 33 LSU in the first round on Saturday.

The Bears beat San Francisco 5-1 and routed Davis 6-0, in what was an attempt by Cal’s head coach Kris Kwinta to put some additional pressure on his team ahead of tough matchups and conference play beginning as soon as later this week.

he Bears have their sights set on the upcoming double-header against San Francisco and UC Davis. While Cal will be taking San Francisco on its home courts in Berkeley on Saturday, the team will be traveling to Davis to take on the Aggies later that same day.

Despite Cal’s solid 6-1 win over Pacific on Thursday, head coach Kris Kwinta praised the team’s energy over anything else.

The Bears came back from Austin, Texas, with solid results in doubles competition but still much to accomplish to achieve regularity in singles matches.