
ATHENS, Ga. -- Texas defeated California 4-1 in the NCAA championship on Friday afternoon at Dan Magill Tennis Complex. The ninth-seeded Longhorns (23-5) advance to the NCAA championship quarterfinals to face top-seeded Southern California at 12 p.m. ET Sunday in Athens, Georgia.
"We feel like we're playing our best tennis," head coach Michael Center said. "We worked hard all year to prepare ourselves to play our best tennis right now, so we will be ready to go and we are excited about the opportunity."
It marked the second time Texas defeated Cal this season, including a 4-2 Longhorn victory in the consolation round of the ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championship in Houston on Feb. 16.On Friday, Texas picked up the doubles point with wins at position Nos. 1 and 2. At No. 2 doubles, Adrien Berkowicz and George Goldhoff cruised to an 8-1 victory against Cal's Andre Goransson and Ben McLachlan. Texas' Lloyd Glasspoll and Søren Hess-Olesen clinched the doubles point by defeating Gregory Bayane and Chase Melton 8-3.
Junior All-American Hess-Olesen won his 10th consecutive singles match by defeating Cal's Ben McLachlan 6-4, 6-3, at No. 1 singles. The Big 12 Player of the Year improves to 19-2 during dual match play.
Junior Clement Homs gave the Longhorns a 3-0 team advantage with a win at No. 6 singles. Homs defeated Cal's Nikhil Jayashankar 6-1, 6-2, for his first win since a 13-match winning streak from Jan. 7 to May 5.
With the Bears nipping at the Longhorns' tail -- picking up a point at No. 3 singles and winning first sets on court Nos. 2 and 5 -- freshman George Goldhoff provided UT's match-clinching point for the second time in the NCAA tournament action (also in the first round against Marist).
Goldhoff weathered a two-break deficit at 3-1 to win the first set 7-5 against Cal's Andre Goransson. The ITA Texas Region Rookie Player of the Year followed with 6-3 second-set victory to clinch the match.
"It was a really tough match because I was down in both sets," Goldhoff said. "I was always playing from behind, but felt like I was in control of the points. So if I played smart I could come back and that's what happened."
Texas advances to the NCAA Round of Eight for the 11th time overall and the first time since 2009. It marks the fourth squad that Center has guided to the NCAA championship quaterfinals or beyond at Texas.