CLAREMONT, CA - Having risen to no. 8 in the country on Thursday, the Pomona-Pitzer Men's tennis team rallied from 2-1 down to defeat the no. 16 Redlands Bulldogs on Saturday.
The number two doubles team of Uday Singh and Max Sabel managed the Hens lone doubles point, winning 9-7 and putting PP on the board. Down 2-1, the Hens needed to win four of the six singles matches to win, and they started off strong. Tommy Meyer cruised to a 6-1 first set, and Chris Wiechert rolled through his first, 6-2. At three singles, Frankie Allinson struggled early on, dropping the first set 6-1. Number four player Uday Singh, playing Anish Nanda for the third time in two seasons (the other two having resulted in third set super tiebreak losses), captured his first set 6-2. At five singles, Max Sabel captured the first set, 6-4. Alex Groth was unable to find his rhythm at six singles, and dropped the first set 6-3.
Meyer was the first singles match off the court, tying the score at 2 with his 6-1, 6-3 win. Redlands answered back at six singles, regaining the lead, 3-2. The Bulldogs tallied another point at three singles, leading 4-2. With three matches remaining, the Sagehens needed all three to win the match. Singh, up a set but down 5-2 in the second, mounted a rally, coming back to take the second set and the match, 6-2, 7-5. Wiechert was the next to answer, taking the second set tiebreaker 8-6 to win the match, 6-2, 7-6 and tie the match at 4.
As Pomona-Pitzer was tying the match, Sabel's opponent, Darren Dahl rallied to take the second set, 6-3. Both players held serve early, with Sable holding a 2-1 edge. At this point, Sabel locked in and took advantage of a few costly mistakes to steal the break and go up 3-1, and then 4-1. Both players held to bring the match to 5-2. Dahl held to get it to 5-3, and had break point to get back on serve, but Sabel stepped up and played solid down the stretch to get the hold and the match, 5-4 Pomona-Pitzer.
The no. 8 Hens (13-2) travel to Caltech on Saturday before finishing the regular season against Cal Lutheran, UC Santa Cruz, and CMS.
