Peter Wright

Paul doesn’t focus on any of the rankings, results or expectations. He focuses only on himself and how he can improve day by day.

After four straight home matches, Cal men’s tennis hits the road to play at Utah this weekend before returning home to face UCSB.

On Sunday, March 24, Cal was shorthanded coming into the matches against Nevada and Saint Mary’s, with both Jacob Brumm and Yuta Kikuchi out. Nevertheless, the Bears stepped up and defeated both teams 4-0 with a modified lineup.

The Bears have had moderate success this season but really started showing promise two weeks ago when they began 2-0 in the Pac-12. Since then, they have been 4-0 at home overall.

Cal men’s tennis entered the weekend hoping to continue its hot streak and defend its title from last year, but instead, after only one win, the Bears got shut out — and then lost again to an unranked team to close out its tournament.

This upcoming weekend, Cal will face three more opponents as it travels to the BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge presented by Oracle, an eight-team tournament played in Indian Wells, California.

Cal came swinging into the singles, however, as Kikuchi, Paul Barretto, Molloy, Hoffmann and Draper all won their first sets. The second sets started well for the Bears, as many of them took leads, and Hoffmann, Molloy, Draper and Paul Barretto all broke their opponents’ serve.

That being said, these matches are hardly easy wins — Cal is not favored in either of them — and to win, Cal will have to play like the team that fans got a glimpse of at USC.

After this, No. 47 Cal falls to 2-5, which includes going just 1-5 against ranked teams. It’s a pretty dire record for a team approaching Pac-12 play, as UCLA, USC, Stanford, Oregon and Arizona were all placed in the top 30 in the most recent poll

This year both the No. 47 Bears and No. 32 Cowboys are heading into the match reeling from losses. Cal lost to Stanford last weekend, and Oklahoma State lost to unranked San Diego on Wednesday.