NEXT UP...
Pacific (0-0) at UC Davis (0-1)
Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015
1:00 p.m.
Marya Welch Tennis Center - Davis, Calif.

UC Davis (0-1) at #15 California (0-0)
Monday, Jan. 19, 2015
9:30 a.m.
Hellman Tennis Complex - Berkeley, Calif.

FIRST SERVE: A pair of Northern California rivals are on tap for the UC Davis men's tennis team this week, as the Aggies welcome Pacific to the Marya Welch Tennis Center before taking on their second nationally ranked opponent in a week, traveling to Berkeley to take on No. 15 California.

Playing five of its first six matches away from home, UC Davis hosts the Tigers in its only home contest during that stretch on Saturday (Jan. 17) at 1 p.m. The Aggies then return to the Bay Area to take on No. 15 California at 9:30 on Monday morning (Jan. 19).

IN THE RANKINGS: UC Davis and Pacific are unranked to begin the year, but California stands at No. 15 in the ITA preseason polls -- the second of four opponents among the top 75 in nation for the Aggies in 2015. Aside from their season opener against No. 30 Stanford and next week's match against the Golden Bears, UC Davis has also scheduled No. 56 Santa Clara (Jan. 31 in Santa Clara) and No. 68 Nevada (Feb. 8 in Davis). The latest ITA team and individual rankings (scheduled to update on Jan. 20) are available at http://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRankings/Rankings.htm.

A LOOK AT THE TIGERS: Pacific opens its 2015 spring schedule in Davis on Saturday, a season removed from finishing 13-12 overall and a 4-5 mark in West Coast Conference play (tied for fifth)... The Tigers finished tied for third at the WCC Championships, defeating BYU and Portland before falling to Pepperdine... Junior Sem Verbeek was a second team All-WCC selection in singles after finishing 19-15 overall, mostly at the No. 1 position, while sophomore Miguel Diaz was named the WCC Freshman of the Year, finishing 20-11 in singles, mostly at the No. 3 and No. 4 positions.

A LOOK AT THE GOLDEN BEARS: After opening their season with individual competition in San Diego, Monday's dual with the Aggies will be California's first of the year... The Golden Bears finished the 2013-14 season with a 17-8 overall mark and a 4-3 record in Pacific-12 Conference play for fourth place... California reached the "Round of 16" at last year's NCAA Championships, posting wins over Texas Tech (4-0) and Texas A&M (4-3), before fall to Texas (4-3)... The Golden Bears return four of their top six regulars in their singles lineup, led by 21-match winners Filip Bergevi (21-13) and Andre Goransson (21-10) -- both of whom are ranked among the top 125 players in the NCAA entering the match at No. 93 and #106, respectively... On the doubles side, the teams of Oskar Wikberg and Goransson, along with the team of Gregory Bayane and Chase Melton, are also nationally ranked, entering the match at #40 and #42, respectively.

SERIES NOTES: According to records dating back to the 1996-97 season, the Aggies are just 3-18 against the Tigers -- including a 2-8 mark since making the jump to Division I in 2007-08... UC Davis has lost four straight to Pacific, dating back to a 4-3 win by the Aggies in Stockton in 2010... UC Davis and California have met only once since 1996-97, falling to the Golden Bears back in 2007 by the score of 6-0 in Berkeley.

LAST TIME OUT: Sophomore James Wade posted his first victory of the spring -- a three-set win at No. 2 singles -- while two teammates also took their respective opponents to three sets before falling as visiting UC Davis battled No. 30 Stanford in a 6-1 loss on Jan. 13. Bryce McKelvie rebounded from a first-set loss to post a 7-5 win in the second set and was up 5-4 against No. 75 David Hsu in the third before falling 7-5. Freshman Everett Maltby also went three sets, jumping out to an early lead before falling to the Cardinal's David Wilczynski.

HE... COULD... GO... ALL... THE... WAY: With their trio of three-set matches at Stanford on Tuesday, the Aggies continued a rather successful trend that saw them post a 44-28 (.611) record in such singles contests last season. Junior Brett Bacharach led all UC Davis players with 14 trips to a decisive third set, finishing with a team-high nine victories. Among returners for 2014-15, Bryce McKelvie was 7-3 in three-set matches, Alec Adamson was 6-6, James Wade was 6-3, and Adam Levie was 3-1.

2014-15 Aggies in Three Sets:
Alec Adamson: 1-3 (.250)
Brett Bacharach: 3-1 (.750)
Tommy Lam: 1-3 (.250)
Adam Levie: 0-2 (.000)
Everett Maltby: 1-2 (.333)
Bryce McKelvie: 4-1 (.800)
Jesse Ross: 2-2 (.500)
James Wade: 6-0 (1.000)
Eli Whittle: 2-0 (1.000)

ROAD WEARY: A road-heavy start to the 2014-15 season gives the Aggies plenty of chances to improve on last season's 1-7 mark away from the Marya Welch Tennis Center, including trying to end a five-match losing streak in true road contests. UC Davis' last road win came on Feb. 16, 2014, when the Aggies posted a 6-1 victory at Causeway rival Sacramento State.

AGGIES AT-A-GLANCE: Fresh off its most successful Division I season in 2013-14, UC Davis returns five letter winners, four regular singles starters, and two of its top doubles teams, from a lineup that helped the Aggies post a 14-11 dual match record last spring, including a quartet of 20-game winners in junior Brett Bacharach (25-11) and sophomores James Wade (28-8), Alec Adamson (22-11), and Bryce McKelvie (20-6). UC Davis earned six spots on the Big West's postseason honor roll as Adamson (first team), Wade (first team), and Kyle Miller (second team), were awarded spots on the singles teams, while Adamson and Adam Levie (first team) and Bacharach and Adam Luba (second team) earned doubles laurels. Four new faces dot the UC Davis roster for 2014-15, as highly-touted freshmen Everett Maltby and Tommy Lam join Division I transfers Jesse Ross (Santa Clara) and Eli Whittle (Brown University).

HEAD COACH Eric Steidlmayer: Entering his third season at the helm of the Aggies, Eric Steidlmayer has marshaled a steady improvement in the win column for the Aggies over the last two seasons, moving up from a 5-15 record in 2011-12 to an 8-13 mark in his first year and last year's 14-11 campaign. Steidlmayer, who was an assistant coach at UC Davis for two seasons from 1997-98 while receiving his master's degree in economics, joined the Aggies in July of 2012 after posting a 182-108 overall record in 14 years as a head coach at UC San Diego, coaching five All-America selections and leading the Tritons to 12 consecutive NCAA Division II postseason appearances, including a national semifinal appearance in 2007 and a 20-0 record during the 2011 regular season.

ADJUST YOUR CALENDARS: For Aggie fans in the Bay Area looking to catch the UC Davis men's tennis team in action at Santa Clara, please note that the start time for the match against the Broncos on Jan. 31 has been adjusted to Noon rather than the originally scheduled 10 a.m. start.

LESS IS MORE: It may only be a two-man class, but Head Coach Eric Steidlmayer and Assistant Coach Michael Meyer were rewarded with the announcement that UC Davis had brought in one of the top mid-major recruiting classes in the nation over the summer according to the website TennisRecruiting.net. Freshmen Everett Maltby and international standout Tommy Lam garnered the Aggies the No. 17 class in the country -- the second-highest among Big West Conference schools (UC Santa Barbra at No. 15) -- and gave UC Davis its second top-20 class according to the website under Steidlmayer's direction (No. 15 in 2013). Maltby was a four-star recruit by the website, ranked as high as No. 15 in the state of California, No. 16 in the region, and No. 85 nationally, while Hong Kong native Lam was ranked as high as No. 17 in the country in 2012 and was a member of the Hong Kong Boys 16-and-under team that placed ninth at the Junior Davis Cup that year.

"FALL" GUYS: UC Davis capped off the fall portion of its 2014-15 campaign with a number of standout performances, including eight individual singles and doubles titles, and deep bracket runs by the tandem of Alec Adamson and Adam Levie against high-level competition at a pair of prestigious tournaments. Late additions to the lineup, Adamson and Levie advanced all the way to the main draw championship at the annual "Battle in the Bay" Classic, defeating a pair of Pac-12 teams before falling to the USC duo of Nick Crystal and Connor Farren, edged 8-6 in the final. The Aggie duo then duplicated their run of a season ago at the ITA Northwest Regionals, advancing to the main draw semifinals of the event before falling to San Francisco's Bernardo Saraiva and Nils Skajaa, 7-6, 4-6, 9-11. Three Aggies finished with double-digit wins during the fall, led by freshman Everett Maltby, who posted an 11-3 mark along with singles and doubles titles at the UCSB Classic. Sophomore Bryce McKelvie finished 10-3, claiming titles at the Aggie Invitational, UCSB Classic (doubles), and Saint Mary's Fall Classic, while sophomore James Wade ended 10-5 with titles at the Aggie Invitational and UCSB Classic.

DOUBLES TROUBLE... AGAIN: Building off of last season's success that saw the pair post a 22-11 mark in doubles play, Alec Adamson and Adam Levie are at it again, winning six of their eight doubles contests together during this past fall season -- including three victories over Pac-12 opponents. Dating back to the 1996-97 season, the tandem's performance last season was one of the best as their 22 victories rank second on the single-season list, trailing only the 24 wins posted by Paul Dilloway and Greg Lee in 2003 (24-6 overall), and the duo stands fourth on the career list as a team behind the record of 51 wins from 2000-03 held by the team of Lee and Yaro Vinogradsky. Individually, Levie's 36 career doubles wins ranks No. 10 on the Aggies' all-time list dating back to the 1996-97 season, while standing eighth on the career dual match list (21 wins) during that same span.

LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT COMBINATIONS: Head Coach Eric Steidlmayer spent the fall tinkering with his doubles lineups, looking for the right fits with his squad for the upcoming spring schedule. The Aggies used 16 different doubles combinations during the fall campaign, posting a combined 25-16 (.610) record over five different events.

"WADE"-ING INTO THE WINNING END: After a 10-5 record during the fall, it doesn't look like James Wade is going through a sophomore slump just a season after a stellar Division I debut. Wade finished 28-8 overall and 19-4 in dual match play -- both standing as the most wins in each category dating back to the 1996-97 season. Wade shaded Greg Lee's overall mark of 26-5 and 15-3 dual match record during the latter's 2003 All-America season when he finished ranked No. 12 in singles and No. 8 in doubles.

NO SINGLING THEM OUT: The Aggies finished the fall with a combined 64-39 (.621) record in singles play -- four wins better than last year's fall mark of 60-46 (.566) -- as seven of the nine Aggies finished with winning records. Three Aggies (Everett Maltby, Bryce McKelvie, and James Wade) finished with double-digit wins, while last year's No. 1 player Alec Adamson ended the fall on a high note with four consecutive wins to share the Flight A singles crown with teammate McKelvie at a weather-shortened Saint Mary's Fall Classic.