Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) took up their rackets on Friday, Sept. 27 at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Division III West Regionals Championships, the inaugural tournament for both teams this season.
Hosted at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center, Pauley Tennis Complex and Rogers Tennis Complex, the tournament featured athletes from teams around California and the Mountain West ready to take on the Sixth Street competitors.
The tournament spanned from Sept. 27 to Sept. 29 and featured 32 participants in the singles bracket and 32 doubles teams on both the men’s and women’s sides.
The Sagehens’ men’s senior tennis captain, Ethan Lee PO ’25, explained why this tournament was important for the team.
“It’s the culmination of all of our hard work over the fall and it has a great reward,” Lee said. “It’s really good for team bonding.”
According to Lee, the tournament was also a chance to practice maintaining a positive mindset during tough matches.
“You can always rely on your mentality: just a strong desire to win, getting every single ball back,” he said. “[I] find whatever I have and put it out there on the court.”
Lee won his first two matches against competitors from UC Santa Cruz and Chapman University without dropping a set. However, he lost in the quarterfinals in a match tiebreak to University of Redlands competitor Gustavo Marcanth after splitting the first two sets 9-11.
Sagehen Leo Rocca PO ’28 explained the significance of the tournament for both himself and the team.
“This is just a great time to get a groove within the team,” Rocca said. “I’m just having fun out there.”
Rocca made it to the doubles quarterfinals with Drew Goldman PO ’28 before losing to Warren Pham HM ’26 and Mathew Robison CM ’25 of CMS.
Also playing for CMS, Anirudh Gupta HM ’27 made it to the semifinals before falling 2-6 and 1-6 to fellow Stag and eventual men’s singles champion Advik Mareedu HM ’26. Despite the individual loss, Gupta emphasized the collective team effort, mentioning last season’s fall to the University of Chicago in the NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis National Championships.
“For me, the team is the most important,” Gupta said. “Winning a national championship is the goal. We got within one game last year so we can definitely do it.”
On the P-P women’s side, Angie Zhou PO ’25 and Marissa Markey PZ ’25 — both members of the 2023 SCIAC Women’s Tennis Championships winning team — paired up to win the doubles championship in the tournament while also placing first and second respectively in the singles bracket.
Heading into the women’s singles tournament finals, Zhou was ranked No. 1 in the singles tournament while Markey was ranked No. 7.
Markey dropped the first set in the quarterfinals but rallied back to win the second set and also the match tiebreak, scoring 11-9. Spurred on by the victory, she went on to win in straight sets in the semifinals before ultimately falling to Zhou in the finals.
With both P-P and CMS finding victories at the tournament, the men’s and women’s teams will continue off-season play prior to the spring SCIAC season.
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