College Tennis News - No. 24 Cal Battles Hornets, Hosts Blue Devils

Thursday, March 7
2:45 p.m. - No. 24 Cal (5-5) vs. Sacramento State (3-6)
Rio del Oro Racquet Club - Sacramento
Series Record vs. Sacramento State: Cal leads, 14-0
Last Time vs. Sacramento State: W, 6-1 (2/8/12 in Berkeley)

Sunday, March 10
1 p.m. - No. 24 Cal (5-5) vs. No. 4 Duke (12-2)
Hellman Tennis Complex - Berkeley
Series Record vs. Duke: Cal leads, 6-2
Last Time vs. Duke: L, 6-1 (3/11/12 in Durham, N.C.)
Coverage: Live Video Stream
Admission: Free

BERKELEY - Twenty-fourth-ranked California (5-5) heads to the state capital for Thursday's 2:45 p.m. match at Sacramento State (3-6) and then hosts No. 4 Duke (11-2) on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Hellman Tennis Complex. The Golden Bears will play the Hornets at the Rio del Oro Racquet Club.

Scouting the Bears
• Cal has a 2-0 record against common opponents with Sacramento State, beating Pacific, 5-2, on Feb. 2 at home and Stanford, 5-2, on Feb. 24 at Hellman
• The Bears and Duke have two common opponents - Michigan and Oklahoma; Cal beat the Wolverines, 4-3, in dramatic fashion on Jan. 26 at home to qualify for the ITA National Team Indoor championship, but the Bears lost to Oklahoma, 4-3, at the ITA indoor tournament on Feb. 17 in Seattle
• The following Golden Bears have earned national singles rankings from the ITA: No. 34 Christoffer Konigsfeldt, No. 56 Ben McLachlan, No. 69 Campbell Johnson, No. 117 Chase Melton
• In doubles, Cal boasts the following ITA rankings: No. 18 Johnson/Konigsfeldt and No. 45 Ben McLachlan/Riki McLachlan
• Peter Wright (Cal '91) is in his 20th season as head coach of Cal

Scouting the Hornets
• Pacific lost to Pacific, 5-2, on March 1 in its last match, which was its home opener
• Sacramento State is 0-2 against its common opponents with Cal, with losses to Pacific and at Stanford, 7-0, on Nov. 15
• Slava Konikov is in his eighth year as the head coach of the Sacramento State men's team

Scouting the Blue Devils
• Duke plays VCU on Tuesday, March 5, before heading west
• The Blue Devils beat their common opponents with Cal - Michigan and Oklahoma - topping the Wolverines, 5-2, on Feb. 10 in Durham, N.C., and blanking the Sooners, 4-0, on Feb. 15 at ITA indoors
• In singles, Duke has the following nationally ranked players: No. 9 Henrique Cunha, No. 31 Michael Redlicki, No. 44 Raphael Hemmeler, No. 46 Fred Saba and No. 70 Chris Mengel
• In doubles, the following Blue Devil teams are ranked: No. 4 Cunha/Hemmeler, No. 9 Redlicki/Jason Tahir and No. 43 Mengel/Saba
• Ramsey Smith is in his fifth year as Duke's head coach

Last Time
The top-seeded California team of senior Christoffer Konigsfeldt and junior Campbell Johnson reached the quarterfinal round of the Pacific Coast Doubles Tournament on March 2 at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club before falling to the ninth-seeded Stanford pair of John Morrissey and Denis Lin, 6-1, 6-1.

Playing in the men's open doubles draw, the Golden Bears had beaten the sixth-seeded Pepperdine team of Sebastian Fanselow and Alex Sarkissian in the round of 16, 7-6(4), 7-6(4), to advance to the quarterfinals.

Next Time
Cal hosts No. 12 Pepperdine at 1 p.m. on March 16.