Men’s Tennis Ends Season with Loss to No. 13 Cal

Saturday, May 14

Berkeley, Calif.

3 PM EST

Army West Point

California

Men’s Tennis Ends Season with Loss to No. 13 Cal

May 14, 2016 | Men's Tennis

BERKELEY, Calif. – The Army West Point men's tennis team saw its season come to an end in the NCAA Tournament at the hands of No. 13 California on Saturday afternoon. The Golden Bears won 4-0 and move on to face No. 27 Ole Miss in the round of 32. The Black Knights finish with a record of 18-9.

"We played a very, very good team today," said Army head coach Jim Poling. "The guys fought hard and battled with them in a few sets, but this is one of the best teams we've ever played. I'm proud of our effort today."

The doubles point went to Cal to start the match. The Golden Bears won the first doubles flight 6-1 but the Black Knights fought to keep the doubles portion going. Freshman David Mitchell and junior Grant Riechmann, playing together for the first time this spring, won two points in a row after falling behind 3-0 to start. That sparked a rally from junior Sam Lampman and sophomore Michael Nguyen on the second court. That combination won three straight to close the gap to 5-4. However, the third doubles match was decided at 6-3 in favor of Cal to give them the point.

Army battled in multiple singles flights despite the shutout. Lampman was tasked with facing the 30th-ranked player in the country in Florian Lakat in the number one position. The Cadets junior narrowly lost 6-4 with multiple points coming down to the wire and only trailed 4-2 when the match was decided. At one point in the first set, Lampman lead 4-3.

Nguyen was matched with Filip Bergevi in the fourth singles flight and gave the 119th-ranked player all he could handle. Similar to his doubles partner Lampman, Nguyen led 4-3 in the first set and ultimately lost 6-4. When the match was called, the San Jose, Calif., native had the second set tied at 4-4.

This was the seventh time the Black Knights made the NCAA Tournament and is the third straight season in which they won at least 18 matches.

For up-to-date information on Army men's tennis visit GoArmyWestPoint.com or follow @ArmyWP_MTennis on Twitter.

Results
Singles

1. No. 30 Florian Lakat (Cal) vs. Sam Lampman (Army) – 6-4, 4-2, unfinished

2. No. 31 Andre Goransson (Cal) def. Grant Riechmann (Army) – 6-3, 6-0

3. No. 85 Billy Griffith (Cal) def. David Mitchell (Army) – 6-0, 6-2

4. No. 119 Filip Bergevi (Cal) vs. Michael Nguyen (Army) – 6-4, 4-4, unfinished

5. No. 124 Oskar Wikberg (Cal) vs. Austin McCasin (Army) – 6-2, 4-3, unfinished

6. J.T. Nishimura (Cal) def. Michael Sienko (Army) – 6-2, 6-0

Order of Finish – 2, 3, 6

Doubles

1. Filip Bergevi/Florian Lakat (Cal) def. Kyle Barnes/Austin McCasin - 6-1

2. Andre Goransson/Oskar Wikberg (Cal) vs. Sam Lampman/Michael Nguyen (Army) – 5-4, unfinished

3. Mads Engsted/J.T. Nishimura (Cal) def. Grant Riechmann/David Mitchell (Army) – 6-3

Order of Finish – 1, 3