Thousand Oaks, Calif. - The Pomona-Pitzer Men's Tennis team used big comebacks at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to take a 2-1 lead and went on to earn a 6-3 win over Cal Lutheran in the SCIAC semifinals on Friday.
The second-seeded Sagehens began the day with a 5-0 win over Occidental in a morning quarterfinal match and improve to 16-6 overall and 8-1 against SCIAC opponents. Pomona-Pitzer will advance to tomorrow's championship match against top-seeded CMS.
The Sagehens appeared to be on the verge of a 3-0 deficit after doubles as Cal Lutheran roared out to big leads on all three courts (at one point leading 7-2, 6-3, 6-3). The Kingsmen finished off an 8-2 win at No. 1 for a 1-0 lead, but Pomona-Pitzer was able to rally back on the other two courts. Junior Connor Hudson and freshman Graham Maassen fought off three match points in a row to come back for a 9-7 win at No. 3, and sophomore Jonathan Kim and Sam Crawford prevailed in a tiebreaker 9-7.
Freshman Josh Kim (pictured) then helped keep the momentum going with a dominant 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 5 singles to put the Sagehens in front 3-1. Freshman Anthony Bello followed with a win at No. 6 singles to stretch the lead to 4-1, and after Cal Lutheran's Connor Treacy captured a win at No. 3, freshman Jake Yasgoor closed out the match with a 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 2, coming back from a 4-1 deficit in the second set. Maassen also earned a win at No. 4 singles to give Pomona-Pitzer four singles wins from its freshmen.
In the first match of the day, the Sagehens rested some of its top players against Occidental, and had to battle in doubles, where Jonathan Kim and Crawford came away with a 9-7 win at No. 1 and Yasgoor and junior Connor Sutton earned an 8-6 win at No. 3. Bello won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 4 singles to make the score 4-0, and Josh Kim closed it out with a 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 3, at which point the match was halted 5-0 due to SCIAC Tournament rules.
Freshman Spencer Simonides and junior Kevin Wei were both up 5-0 in the second sets, on the verge of singles wins as well at No. 5 and No. 6, but ended up not completing their matches.
Pomona-Pitzer will be facing No. 1 CMS in the championship match tomorrow, after the Stags won the first meeting 8-1 back on April 5. The Sagehens earned their point at No. 1 doubles, and nearly earned another at No. 2 doubles before the Stags prevailed in a tiebreaker.
