Claremont, Calif. - Senior Chris Wiechert (pictured) ended his Pomona-Pitzer career with a doubles win (along with freshman Anthony Bello), but the top-ranked CMS Men's Tennis team prevailed with a 5-1 win in the NCAA Regional finals on Saturday.
With the loss, the Sagehens conclude the year with a 17-8 record, with three of the losses coming to CMS (once in the regular season, and once in the SCIAC finals). The Stags improve to 28-1 and remain unbeaten against Division III opponents on the year, with their only loss coming to Division I UCLA, and move on to the Division III quarterfinals (which they will host next weekend).
Wiechert and Bello went out on a high note, by pulling away late for a dominant 8-4 win at No. 1 doubles. The Sagehen team took 12 of the final 13 points after CMS pulled within 5-4, including eight in a row after a changeover to go from 5-4, 7-4. They then earned the winning point at 40-15 to pick up their second win against the top CMS team of Warren Wood and Joe Dorn this year.
An injury to sophomore Jonathan Kim forced the Sagehens to adjust their other doubles positions. Sophomore Sam Crawford, who usually partners with Kim at No. 2, moved down to No. 3 to play with freshman Spencer Simonides. The duo got off to a quick start in their first match playing together, leading 2-0 and 3-1, but eventually the CMS team of Nikolas Marino and Zhenya Pereverzin settled in and took an 8-4 win for the swing point (Skyler Butts and Neel Kotrappa won 8-1 at No. 2).
The Sagehens continued to battle in singles, with freshman Jake Yasgoor taking a 6-4 first set at No. 1 over Wood, and Wiechert taking the first set 6-3 at No. 2 over Dorn. However, CMS won some tight battles in the first set at the other courts (with Marino prevailing 6-4 at No. 3 after a long swing game at 4-4 against Connor Hudson, and Pereverzin coming from behind to win 7-5 at No. 6 against Bello).
Butts earned the third point for the Stags with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 4, and Marino outlasted Hudson in a tough battle 6-4, 6-3. Daniel Morkovine then came back from 0-3 in the second set for a 6-3, 6-4 win over Josh Kim at No. 5 for the clinching point.
Wiechert had just taken the first game of the third set at No. 2 singles (6-3, 3-6, 1-0) when the match was ended with CMS getting the clinching point to get a no decision in his final college match. He ends his career with three first-team All-SCIAC selections in his first three seasons (this year's awards are still pending) and a National Rookie of the Year honor as a freshman. The rest of the Sagehen lineup returns next season.
