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No. 27 Cal Falls 4-2 At No. 15 USC

Mar 26, 2022
Carl Emil Overbeck won in singles against the Trojans.

LOS ANGELES – In another close battle between the California and USC men's tennis teams, the 27th-ranked Golden Bears fell to the 15th-ranked Trojans, 4-2, on Saturday at Marks Tennis Stadium.
 
The Bears were a match point away from winning another match in singles, which featured five tiebreaks.
 
The Bears' record stands at 10-5 overall and 1-2 in the Pac-12. USC – which also beat Cal 4-2 on Feb. 6 in Berkeley – improved to 13-5 (3-1 Pac-12).
 
Cal's Sean Hill and Lucas Magnaudet completed the first doubles match, beating USC's Peter Makk and Lodewijk Westrate, 6-3, on court two. But after the Trojans won on court three, USC clinched the point when the 17th-ranked Stefan Dostanic and Bradley Frye defeated Cal's 28th-ranked Yuta Kikuchi and Carl Emil Overbeck, 6-3, on court one.
 
The Bears trailed 3-0 in singles after USC posted wins on courts one and three.
 
Cal freshman Derrick Chen began the comeback, beating the 73rd-ranked Westrate, 7-6(6), 6-3, on court five. Overbeck followed with a 7-6(5), 7-6(7) triumph over USC's Ryan Colby on court four, and Cal trailed 3-2.
 
Over on court six, Magnaudet was close to defeating former Bear Paul Barretto, as the current Bear had match point at 1-6, 7-6(4), 5-3 (40-30). A Magnaudet win would have made the score 3-3. But the court-two match ended first – with Cal senior Philip Hjorth losing to the 116th-ranked Bradley Frye, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(7) – giving USC a 4-2 win. The court-six match was abandoned.

"I compare it to yesterday's match against UCLA, where we were asleep for half the match," said Kris Kwinta, Cal's Peter Wright Director of Men's Tennis. "Today we came out firing, and even though we were down 0-3, we didn't look at the scoreboard and kept fighting. We needed every one of them to step up, and then the momentum went our way. Carl stepped up, Lucas stepped up, Derrick stepped up, and we knew it was coming down court two.
 
"Phil was down three match points, like against Yale, and he rallied and put us in a position to win it. It didn't go our way in the breaker. On court six, Lucas had Paul's number after winning that second set, and in my book, we were one to two points away from winning. I'm happy with the way we competed."
 
Cal continues Pac-12 road play when the Bears play at No. 61 Arizona State on April 1 and at No. 19 Arizona on April 3.
 
No. 15 USC (13-5, 3-1 Pac-12) defeated No. 27 California (10-5, 1-2 Pac-12), 4-2
March 25, 2022, in Los Angeles, Calif.
Marks Tennis Stadium
 
Doubles
1. No. 17 Stefan Dostanic/Bradley Frye (USC) def. No. 28 Yuta Kikuchi/Carl Emil Overbeck (Cal), 6-3*
2. Sean Hill/Lucas Magnaudet (Cal) def. Peter Makk/Lodewijk Westrate (USC), 6-3
3. Ryder Jackson/Samuel Rubell (USC) def. Alex Chang/Philip Hjorth (Cal), 6-3
 
Order of Finish – 2, 3, 1*
*USC clinched the doubles point on court one
 
Singles
1. No. 6 Stefan Dostanic (USC) def. No. 102 Yuta Kikuchi (Cal), 6-1, 6-1
2. No. 116 Bradley Frye (USC) def. Philip Hjorth (Cal), 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(7)^
3. No. 46 Peter Makk (USC) def. Sean Hill (Cal), 7-5, 6-2
4. Carl Emil Overbeck (Cal) def. Ryan Colby (USC), 7-6(5), 7-6(7)
5. Derrick Chen (Cal) def. No. 73 Lodewijk Westrate (USC), 7-6(6), 6-3
6. Lucas Magnaudet (Cal) vs. Paul Barretto (USC), 1-6, 7-6(4), 5-3 (Unfinished)
 
Order of Finish – 1, 3, 5, 4, 2^
^Clinched the overall match