Pomona-Pitzer men's tennis finished its regular season last week by defeating Cal Lutheran but falling to UC Santa Cruz and CMS. Going into the playoffs, the Sagehens hold a 15-4 record and are 5-1 in conference play, good for second place in SCIAC.
With a score of 6-3, the win over the Kingsmen highlighted the depth that the Hens carry in the lineup this year as P-P picked up wins at the #4, #5, and #6 singles spots.
The Hens came through in all three doubles matches. At #1, Tommy Meyer PO '12 and Frankie Allinson PO '13 won 8-5. At #2, Uday Singh PO '12 and Max Sabel PZ '13 easily defeated their opponents 8-1. The third doubles match was a battle and went into a tiebreak, but Chris Wiechert PZ '14 and Alex Groth PO '12 did not drop a point, winning the tiebreak 7-0 and the match 9-8.
The Cal Lu singles lineup presented more of a challenge to the Hens. At the #1 spot, Meyer lost a tough match to Cal Lu's Andrew Giuffrida, who is ranked #19 nationally. At #2, Wiechert lost his first set 7-6 but came back to win the second 6-3. Since the Hens had already won 5 matches, Wiechert played a 10-point tiebreak instead of a third set, and lost 10-1. Allinson was also defeated 6-1, 6-2, playing at the #3 spot.
Despite the top half of the singles lineup struggling, the Hens were able to pull out a victory thanks to wins by the next three players. At #4, Singh defeated his opponent 6-3, 6-4. Sabel, playing #5, won a tough first set in a tiebreak but had no trouble in the second and won without dropping a game. Nick Tagliarino PZ '11 handily defeated his Cal Lutheran opponent 6-3, 6-1 at the #6 spot.
The Hens took on #5 ranked UC Santa Cruz the following day, losing 3 to 6. After winning at the #1 and #2 doubles spots, the Hens took only 1 of 6 singles matches. Sabel won his match at #5 singles, grinding out a 2-6, 7-5, 10-7 victory.
After facing Santa Cruz in the morning, the Hens rested and then took on #3 ranked CMS in the evening, losing 8 to 1. Wiechert pulled out the lone victory for Pomona-Pitzer, defeating Robbie Erani, the 20th-ranked player in the country, 6-3, 6-7(5), (10-7).
“Last week we had a series of tough matches, but losses make us want to win that much more next time,” Meyer said. “ We're hoping that we can be inspired at SCIACs this weekend and reverse last week's results.”
The Hens are currently ranked #8 in the country, marking a significant improvement from last season. They will continue play in the SCIAC tournament this weekend.