MORAGA, Calif. – The Saint Mary's College Men's Tennis Team plays their first official dual match of the spring season this Saturday at 1:30 p.m. as they take on the Cal Bears in Berkeley, Calif.
 
The Gaels won an exhibition match with American River College 7-0 this past Wednesday, but the match up with the Bears will be the team's first official action since November 7 in Stockton, Calif. for the Pacific Invitational.
 
SMC is led by James Watt was a late addition to the ITA Division-I Northwest Super Regional Championships after his outstanding performances throughout the fall 2021 season, including advancing to the semifinals of the Northwest Regionals in the Men's Singles Division.
 
Watt advanced to the semifinals of the Northwest Super Regional this past October. He knocked out James Davis of the host Washington Huskies 7-5, 7-5 in the first round of the super finals to advance to the round of 16. In the second round, Watt was locked in a battle with #6 Sema Pankin of the University of the Pacific that went to three sets.
 
The first set went to a tie breaker that Watt would win 7-6 (5). Watt found himself trailing early in the second set, but briefly took a lead after a nice comeback before Pankin would pull away for the 6-3 win. The third set would go to Pankin 6-2 to eliminate Watt after good battle in the second round.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gaels wrapped up the fall, individual season at the Pacific Invitational November 5-7. Saint Mary's did manage to go .500 in the doubles bracket but struggled in the individual matches.
 
James Watt and Carlos Ramos Membrives took down Fernando Fonseca and Bastiaan Weststrate of Cal Poly 6-3, Karlo Divkovic and Caelan Potts beat Hendrik Inno and Ben Keyser also from Cal Poly, and Boris Reckow and Felipe Rincon defeated Coleton Hootman and Cory Pham of UC Davis.
 
ABOUT CAL
Head Coach Kris Kwinta will coach his first match at home in Berkeley after being hired in October. The Bears are 1-1 so far in dual-match play, having defeated Tulsa 4-3 and losing to Tulane 4-3.
 
Cal has owned the match up with the Gaels over the years, winning eight straight matches with SMC. The Gaels last played the Bears on January 18, 2021 in the Gaels first match in 313 days due to COVID-19 related pauses in play. Cal won the matchup 5-2. Saint Mary's did grab a big doubles win on Court 1 that day, as the tandem of James Watt/Boris Reckow took down No. 36 Paul Barretto/Can Kaya with a 6-4 score. 
 
Fans can also follow all the action via the Hellman live stream and live scores by clicking here.
 
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