Claremont, Calif. - The No. 11 Pomona-Pitzer Men's Tennis team earned a 9-0 win over Christopher Newport in the morning and then edged No. 15 Mary Washington 5-4 in the afternoon to sweep a pair of matches at Pauley Tennis Complex.
With the wins, Pomona-Pitzer improves to 5-2 on the year (including 5-1 against Division III teams, with one loss to Point Loma Nazarene of NAIA). Christopher Newport falls to 4-2 and Mary Washington slips to 5-2 with the losses.
The nightcap was the closer of the two matches and saw Pomona-Pitzer take a 2-1 lead into singles, after junior Jonathan Kim and sophomore Jake Yasgoor took an 8-6 win at No. 2 for the swing point. Sophomores Graham Maassen and Spencer Simonides earned an 8-3 win at No. 3 for the first point.
After Mary Washington took the first singles win to tie the score 2-2, senior Connor Hudson finished off a 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 1 for a 3-2 lead, as he controlled the match after starting off in an 0-3 hole in the first. Freshman Marko Mandic (pictured), who breezed to a 6-0, 6-1 win in the morning against Christopher Newport, was pushed at No. 6 singles but came away with a hard-fought 6-4, 6-4 win.
After Mary Washington earned a win at No. 3, freshman Sam Malech came through with a pivotal break at No. 4 to win a 6-3, 7-5 decision and clinch the match for the Sagehens. Malech held at 5-5 and then got to double match point at 15-40 on Evan Charles' serve, capturing the win when a Charles backhanded drifted long. Thomas Low fell in a tight one at No. 5 for the final point (6-2, 6-7, 7-10) after getting a match point in the second set erased by a big service winner from Brandon Griffin.
The first match of the day saw the Sagehens sweep doubles, and win every singles match in two sets. Yasgoor prevailed in a tough battle at No. 1 (7-5, 7-5) and Simondies took a second-set tiebreaker 7-5 for a 6-3, 7-6 win at No. 5. Kim (7-5, 6-2 at No. 2), senior Kevin Wei (6-4, 6-2 at No. 4) and senior Michael Chang (6-4, 6-4 at No. 6) also had singles wins.
Pomona-Pitzer will be back in action next weekend for another Sunday doubleheader, taking on Carnegie Mellon and Hardin-Simmons at Pauley Tennis Complex.
