Last season, the Washington men’s tennis team was knocked out of the Pac-12 tournament by California in a heartbreaking 4-3 dual match. Yesterday it wasn’t a dual match, but the outcome was very much the same.
On Monday, all three of the UW’s teams in the main doubles draw of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northwest Regionals were ousted by pairs from Cal.
Seniors Marton Bots and Kyle McMorrow lost to Campbell Johnson and Mads Engsted in a close match, 9-8 (5), in the quarterfinals. Sophomores Jeff Hawke and Viktor Farkas went down to Ben and Riki McLachlan, 8-1, in the same round. The McLachlan brothers later defeated sophomore Emmett Egger and junior Max Manthou in the semifinals, 8-6, after the Huskies defeated another Cal pair in the quarterfinals.
Despite the losses, UW head coach Matt Anger was encouraged with his team’s progress in doubles, especially after the Huskies struggled last year.
“We’re making a lot of good moves out there,” Anger said. “We’re still making mistakes, but we’re definitely making fewer and the percentage of mistakes is improving. But without a doubt, we need to be getting better.”
While they were soundly beaten on Monday, the UW’s doubles play was still encouraging, largely because so many of the UW pairings this week were new. But there was concern about the UW’s singles play.
No Husky made it past the round of 16 in the main singles draw, as Egger lost in three sets on Monday. The UW’s two seniors, McMorrow and Bots, lost in the round of 32 in straight sets.
“[Overall, our play was] up and down,” Anger said. “We were inconsistent within the team.”
Anger said Egger “led the way” in terms of consistency and competitiveness for the Huskies in both singles and doubles during Regionals. He also singled out the play of Hawke, who didn’t play singles for the Huskies last year yet advanced to the round of 32 this week after knocking off 17th-seeded Bernardo Saraiva of San Francisco, Calif., in the second round.
Rain delays forced tournament officials to cancel consolation brackets for the day, which prevented sophomore Nicholas Kamisar from playing his fourth-round singles match in the consolation bracket yesterday in Moraga, Calif.
In less than two weeks, the Huskies will host their first fall tournament of the season, the PNW Intercollegiates, starting Nov. 2 at Nordstrom Tennis Center.
Reach reporter Thuc Nhi Nguyen at sports@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @thucnhi21
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