Cal_Neighbors

Cal netters expect strong season

Balmy weather, beautiful courts, excellent seating, and exciting home teams. For an unmatched experience, visit the Hellman Tennis Complex just off Oxford Street — home to Cal’s men and women’s tennis teams. Last year, both teams finished 13th in the NCAA. This year, each has an excellent shot at a higher ranking, if not the top. And the icing for fans: the women’s regional finals will be held on campus in May.

Junior Raquel Kops-Jones

Women’s tennis: winning coach, experienced team
Now in its 30th season, Cal women’s tennis has earned a reputation as one of the nation’s elite programs. The numbers speak for themselves. As a team, the Bears have made four Final Four appearances since 1985, 12 NCAA quarterfinal showings since 1983, and an NCAA appearance in each of the past 21 years. This continued success is a direct result of the fourth active “winningest” coach in NCAA history, Jan Brogan. The women’s team, which boasts four players ranked in the Top-50, is returning the entire startup lineup from last season.

One player to watch for is returning All-American and 2002 second team All-Pac-10, junior, Raquel Kops-Jones, who inherits the Bears’ No. 1 spot for the second year in a row. “We call her the rock,” Brogan said of Kops-Jones. “She’s a very powerful all-court player and one of the best athletes in women’s tennis.”

Other impressive players to keep an eye on are senior team captain Christina Fusano and junior Catherine Lynch.

Men’s tennis — moving up
Since 1999, the Cal men’s tennis team has steadily moved up the national ranking chart and win columns. The Bears finished the 2002 campaign with a No. 13 national ranking and a 5-2 second-place conference record — their best conference finish ever. “As a group, we feel that we have a goal that we haven’t achieved yet — and that’s winning a team national title,” said head coach Peter Wright, who is 119-87 in his nine years with the Bears. With all six singles regulars and five doubles starters returning this year, Cal sees this as the year for the national championship in May.

Watch for senior All-American and team captain John Paul Fruttero and his All-American doubles partner senior Robert Kowalczyk. Fruttero returns to the team this spring after taking the fall season off to play in the amateur circuit. He enters the season ranked No. 4 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Kowalczyk opened the fall season ranked ninth in the country in doubles by the ITA. But it was as a single player that he scored the biggest win of the Bears’ fall season — upsetting the No. 2 player in the country at the Napa Valley Challenge.