Cal Men's Tennis upsets Stanford in Big Slam
Women's Gymnastics, Women's Water Polo, Rugby have perfect starts
Cal Men’s Tennis (2-1) wins Big Slam
Cal 5th-year senior Yuta Kikuchi finally got to experience a win over rival Stanford. The Cal No.1 singles player from Japan clinched the non-conference Big Slam victory this past weekend with a three-set victory over then No.13 Stanford’s Arthur Fery.
"It feels amazing," Kikuchi said of the win. "In my five years here, we hadn't beaten them even once. When we lost in the past, it was always a close match. There were small differences between the teams. We didn't have it, and they had it. But today, we had the small differences, and we could win as a team. That's a great feeling for sure."
This is the first Big Slam win in the still-new Kriss Kwinta era. Cal Men’s Tennis returned to the top 25 in rankings after this win, and the Golden Bears hope to return to the postseason in year 2 under Kwinta. Even with the caveat that teams may not necessarily be at full strength this early in the season, a win over Stanford is very satisfying and could be a springboard to a great season. Cal’s current lone loss came against No.9 Florida State at the neutral site of Hawaii.
Doubles
1. Siddhant Banthia/Carl Emil Overbeck (Cal) def. Arthur Fery/Neel Rajesh (Stanford), 6-4*
2. Ryder Jackson/Lucas Magnaudet (Cal) vs. Max Basing/Filip Kolasinski (Stanford), 5-4 Unfinished
3. Philip Hjorth/Yuta Kikuchi (Cal) def. Samir Banerjee/Aryan Chaudhary (Stanford), 6-2
Order of Finish – 3, 1*
*Clinched the doubles point
Singles
1. Yuta Kikuchi (Cal) def. Arthur Fery (Stanford), 6-3, 2-6, 6-4^
2. No. 7 Max Basing (Stanford) def. No. 52 Ryder Jackson (Cal), 7-6(1), 7-5
3. Samir Banerjee (Stanford) def. Carl Emil Overbeck (Cal), 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-3
4. Aryan Chaudhary (Stanford) def. Siddhant Banthia (Cal), 6-3, 6-2
5. Philip Hjorth (Cal) def. Filip Kolasinski (Stanford), 6-2, 6-3
6. Lucas Magnaudet (Cal) def. Neel Rajesh (Stanford), 6-3, 5-7, 6-0
Order of Finish – 5, 4, 6, 1^, 2, 3
^Clinched the overall match
Kwinta took over for Peter Wright, whose program only played three matches in the COVID delayed 2021 season and lost essentially everyone other than Kikuchi.
The 2023 squad sees the addition of two impact transfers in new No.2 singles player Ryder Jackson from USC and a graduate transfer from Wake Forest in Siddhant Banthia.
The Bears will next compete in the ITA Indoor Tennis kick-off from Austin, Texas this weekend. The Indoor Tennis championship uses the previous season’s finish to award the 16 host sites. No.22 Cal will have to get through No.7 Texas in the first round on Saturday.
No.11 Cal Women’s Tennis (1-0) will have an easier path as a regional host this weekend. Bears will take on Princeton, then the winner between Georgia Tech and San Diego. The 2016 Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Indoor Championship, included by Cal Athletics in their count of 102 National Championships, is currently the lone team championship won by the program.
Cal Women’s Gymnastics stays perfect
On the heal of a historically good start at the Super 16, Cal Women’s Gymnastics (7-0, 1-0 in Pac-12) built on that win with two more solid outings. Golden Bears will finally open their home schedule this Saturday against rival Stanford. Cal will also celebrate their first Pac-12 regular season title from last year at this meet.
Cal improved on their team score in their second meet of the season at the Wasatch Classic in Salt Lake City. Golden Bears posted the 9th-best team score (197.525) in program history.
Andi Li led the way, including a 9.925 on beam and the Bears again got a fine outing from super freshman eMjae Frazier.
Resting eMjae Frazier at Tucson, Cal allowed another freshman Miki Aderinto to make her debut along with Casey Brown (who debut in SLC). Although the Bears wobbled at times, they were clutch in the final rotation on beam, led by Gabby Perea, to take an important road win 196.4 to 196.1 over Arizona to open their Pac-12 season. Senior Navaeh DeSouza took the All Around honor at this meet.
Cal will next face an improved Stanford squad that some claims to have the top freshman class in the country. Cal fans should go crazy for eMjae Frazier’s home debut and every time the team dons the Bear head for sticking their dismounts. It should be a fun one.
Cal Women’s Water Polo looks strong in Fresno
Although Cal graduated some major international talent in Emma Wright (Canada) and Kitty Lynn Joustra (Netherlands), No.4 Bears look strong in going 3-0 from Fresno against a trio of top-10 opponents.
Cal beat No.5 UC Irvine 15-10, No 7 Michigan 13-10, and No.8 Fresno State 16-10.
Senior Shea Salvino earned the MPSF Player of the Week honor. All-American goalie Isabel Williams was stellar in the cage. Cal also got strong play from international players such as Ruby Swadling (Australia) and Rozanne Voorvelt (Netherlands).
It is too early to say if Cal can indeed compete against UCLA and USC this year or Stanford with all of their Team USA senior team members this season. We will find this weekend in Bear Territory as the Bears will host Stanford in between matches against San Jose State and UC Davis.
Cal Rugby had an expected perfect start in 15s action
To the surprise of no one, Cal Rugby wins their 17th consecutive Dennis Storer Classic down at UCLA two weekends ago. Playing the abbreviated 20 minutes half of rugby 15s action, Cal cruised to three easy wins: 35-0 over UC Santa Barbara, 85-0 over UC San Diego, and 45-0 over UC Los Angeles.
Golden Bears followed that up with a home rout over Santa Clara Broncos by a score of 79-3.
Cal will play at UC Santa Barbara this weekend, before 5 straight home matches.
Cal Men’s Swimming - Update
Before Cal Rugby can possibly return to winning another national title this year, the best bet for Cal’s 103th team natty is Cal Men’s Swimming. Golden Bears will seek a championship repeat and have looked relatively.
Of course, No.2 Cal did suffer a major beatdown 87-211 at No.1 Arizona State last weekend. I am here to say that Cal fans should not be too worried by that result.
ASU opted to wear tech suits in that meet while the Bears won’t wear those time-saving suits until the Pac-12 Championships. Golden Bears are also notorious for not coming anywhere close to their best times before the NCAA Championships.
So the time comparison is a bit apple-to-orange, but Arizona State under head coach Bob Bowman (who won the last non-Cal/Texas men’s swimming championship at the helm of Michigan back in 2016) just might make it a three-team race this March in Minneapolis.
Credit to ASU’s Leon Marchand, the reigning Pac-12 Swimmer of the Year, for breaking the NCAA records for 400 IM in this meet. Marchand broke the record of Cal’s Hugo Gonzalez, who set it at the NCAA last year. Coincidently, Hugo Gonzalez made his Cal season debut this past weekend. Gonzalez’s times were not that great, but it is all about what the Spanish “Calympian” can do at the NCAA Championships.
GO BEARS!