May 1, 2007

BERKELEY - The No. 40 California men's tennis team heads to Stillwater, Okla. for an NCAA regional on Saturday, May 12, and Sunday, May 13. The Golden Bears will be joined by host No. 8 Oklahoma State, No. 26 Oklahoma and Sacramento State.

Cal (14-9, 4-3) squares off against Oklahoma in the first match on Saturday at 9 a.m. The Cowboys and the Hornets take the courts at 12 p.m. The winners will meet Sunday at 12 p.m.

"I'm really excited to play Oklahoma right now," senior Tyler Browne said. "For once, we don't know who we're playing, and that's going to be in our favor. All this season we've been able to see everyone's stats and say, `uh oh, they're good.' Now we just get to go out there and play tennis, but I think it's a really good thing for our team right now. I'm looking forward to it, I think it's a good draw."

The Bears have never lost to any of the three teams in their bracket. They are 2-0 all time against the Sooners, defeating them last in 1997, 4-3. Their last match against Oklahoma State was in 1998, a 4-2 victory by Cal. The Bears hold a 2-0 all-time record against the Cowboys. Cal is 13-0 all time against the Hornets with the last meeting occurring in 2003.

Junior Pierre Mouillon, currently ranked No. 26 in the ITA singles rankings, leads the Bears. Mouillon played on the top court for Cal most of the season and defeated Pac-10 singles champion Matt Bruch on April 21 to help the Bears beat Stanford. Junior Ken Nakahara has also been strong this season. He had a stretch of 12 wins in 13 matches that included a nine-match winning streak.

The winner of the regional will advance to play the winner of a regional hosted by UCLA in the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga., starting May 18.