The 55th-ranked Oregon (12-12, 1-6) came up short 3-4 to No. 28 California Berkeley (12-8, 4-3 Pac-12) on Friday.
To kick off the afternoon, the Golden Bears captured the doubles point, winning two of the three dual doubles matches.
Cal’s Philip Hjorth and Derrick Chen quickly defeated Vlad Breazu and Luke Vandecasteele 6-3. The Bears’ duo displaced Breazu and Vandecasteele at the net; the Ducks were beat down the line, split up the middle and pushed back with pace.
On the top court, Oregon’s No. 34 ranked tandem, Joshua Charlton and Quinn Vandecasteele (23-10), fell 5-7 in a tight match versus the No. 88 ITA ranked Yuta Kikuchi and Carl Emil Overbeck (5-0). Play on Court 2 was suspended, with Ivailo Keremedchiev and Jesper Klov-Nilsson tied five games all against No. 73 Ryder Jackson and Lucas Magnaudet (15-4). Cal carried a 1-0 advantage going into singles play.
Similar to the doubles outcome, freshman Breazu lost to Hjorth, 3-6, 3-6. The young Duck struggled to win crucial deuce points, and he had trouble executing backhand returns.
Breazu’s doubles partner, L. Vandecasteele, fared better in singles, and secured his first Pac-12 singles win of the 2022-2023 season. Vandecasteele’s low, hard and flat groundstrokes forced a 7-5, 6-1 win over Magnaudet.
On Court 1, Charlton faced Kikuchi, the No. 30 singles ranked player in the nation. Oregon’s No. 1 player put the pressure on Kikuchi, but was defeated 5-7, 3-6. The Cal graduate student was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week on April 11, after impressive conference victories over No. 28 UCLA and No. 10 USC. Kikuchi (15-7) has won six of his last seven singles matches.
To bring the overall match score to 2-3, Klov-Nilsson brought the heat and beat Chen 7-6, 6-1.
The fans shuffled to the center bleachers, and the two teams lined up on the empty third court — all eyes were now on Courts 2 and 4.
On Court 2, Q. Vandecasteele saved a match point to evenly split sets, and force a third set against Jackson. After necessary shirt changes, the players returned to battle it out at the baseline. Some questionable calls by the line judge fired up both teams and added to the nail-biting court chaos. Clinching his second big break of the day, Q. Vandecasteele broke Jackson’s serve on a deuce point to tie the overall match to 3-3.
Once again, the crowd relocated their seats and the two teams shifted up their lines to catch the final action on Court 4.
Emil Overbeck frustrated Keremedchiev in the first set, to the point that the Duck snapped his racquet after losing the set tiebreak. Despite entering the second set with a point penalty, Keremedchiev dominated and claimed the second set. Maybe the new racquet played a part in his comeback.
At this point, the Student Tennis Center was bursting with noise. Oregon’s Charlton and Avi Shugar fired up the Ducks with constant cheers. California responded, just not as loud.
The chants, however, were not enough to fuel the senior Duck. The Danish sophomore’s slightly superior stamina outlasted Keremedchiev. Emil Overbeck clinched the match for Cal, winning 6-7, 6-3, 5-6.
Once the claps ceased, the players left the courts looking physically exhausted while the fans exited the center emotionally drained.
“It’s like the whole season,” Oregon men’s head coach Nils Schyllander said. ‘We played strong and tough, but came out at the wrong end, 3-4, once again. It’s been our M.O. But Cal still battled hard and played a bit better.”
The win improved Cal’s all-time series with Oregon to 37-3, and prolonged the Ducks’ five-match losing streak. Oregon is currently in last place, while Cal sits in fifth place in the Pac-12 conference standings.
The Ducks host No. 17 Stanford this Sunday at 12 p.m. to end their regular season and celebrate Senior Day. Charlton, Keremedchiev, Klov-Nilsson and L. Vandecasteele will all be recognized.
“It’s four character guys. It’s a special day for them, and it’s a day of celebration,” Schyllander said. “Hopefully, they will have a great last home match experience.”
