Peter Wright

The singles matches were mostly one sided affairs. Molloy was the only Cal player that was able to win a set, and he eventually won his match 6-4, 6-4. Brumm, Barretto, Kikuchi and Bjorn Hoffmann, on the other hand, all lost their singles matches in straight sets.

After heading to Los Angeles for one of the toughest weekends on schedule, Cal men’s tennis is looking forward to a duo of unranked teams this Saturday. The team is slated to play UNLV at 11:30 a.m. Saturday followed by Pacific at 2:30 p.m. all in Stockton.

The win comes on the heels of a close 4-2 loss at No. 7 UCLA on Friday. This loss followed the same formula that appeared in previous defeats: Win the doubles point only to be defeated in four close and drawn-out singles matches.

The Bears lost 4-2 against No. 16 Virginia on Saturday before sweeping Western Michigan 4-0 to close out the tournament Sunday.

Cal will travel to College Station, Texas to compete in the ITA Kickoff Weekend, a nationwide event that hosts 30 separate individual tournaments.

Despite losing, 3-4, this match is a good sign that Cal can be competitive with a top-20 team on the road, especially considering that the next matches for the Bears are neutral-site games against No. 17 Virginia, at No. 7 UCLA and at No. 5 USC.

Cal kicks off its season with nonconference foe University of the Pacific in Stockton, California on Tuesday. Last time the two teams met, which was in 2015 in Berkeley, the Bears walked away with a 4-0 sweep.

A year of experience takes on a whole new meaning for the Cal men’s tennis team, as it started the season with only one freshman player and 10 veterans, seven of whom were freshmen last year.

The field of players is composed of singles and doubles winners of other prominent tournaments, such as regional ITA tournaments or the ITA All-American tournament, in addition to several at-large bids.

At the ITA Northwest Regional Championships, 10 Bears competed for five days and got a real taste of traditional rivals, Stanford, Oregon and Washington, with many notable wins. All of them, however, fell short of reaching the finals and securing a coveted bid to the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships.