Claremont, Calif. - The No. 9 Pomona-Pitzer Men's Tennis team picked up a pair of 7-2 wins over nationally ranked teams on the first day of the annual Stag-Hen Invitational on Friday at the Pauley Tennis Complex.
The Sagehens opened the tournament with a 7-2 win over No. 12 Case Western Reserve, and then repeated the feat in the evening with a 7-2 win over No. 6 Trinity (Texas), which had been ranked No. 1 until the new poll came out on Thursday.
With the wins, the Sagehens are now 10-2 on the year, including 10-1 against Division III foes, while also picking up victories in each of their last seven matches. That streak will be put the test tomorrow when they face their tournament co-host, No. 2 CMS, in the Stag-Hen final at 10 a.m.
The two matches almost followed the exact same formula, with Pomona-Pitzer winning all three doubles decisions and then the No. 2 doubles team of sophomore Jake Yasgoor and junior Jonathan Kim (pictured) getting the first two singles decisions for the clinch. However, freshman Sam Malech, a three-set winner at No. 5 against Case Western, broke up the formula in the nightcap by beating Yasgoor to the clinch by mere minutes.
In the Trinity match, Kim earned a late break at No. 3 singles in the first set, and then rode that momentum to a 7-5, 6-1 win and a 4-1 lead after Adam Krull won the first decision at No. 1 for the Tigers. Yasgoor was cruising along 6-2, 5-2 at No. 2, but then Aaron Skinner of Trinity rattled off five straight games to take the second set 7-5 and force a split.
The No. 5 and No. 6 courts started an hour later than the first four courts, and Malech hit a groove midway through the first set, pulling away for a 6-3 win and then taking the second set 6-0 for the fifth and deciding point, making the score 5-2. A moment later, Yasgoor finished off his 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 win at No. 2 to join Kim in a 4-0 day and sophomore Graham Maassen added an extra win at No. 5 (6-2, 7-5).
The first match of the day saw the Sagehens sweep doubles, with Connor Hudson and Kalyan Chadalavada winning at No. 1, Yasgoor and Kim taking No. 2, and Maassen and sophomore Spencer Simonides earning the win at No. 3 (Simonides and sophomore Antony Bello, high school doubles partners, played together for the first time in college at No. 3 against Trinity and won 8-3).
Yasgoor and Kim then provided the fourth and fifth points for the Sagehens, with Yasgoor winning comfortably 6-3, 6-1 and then Kim prevailing in a tight first set 7-5 and taking the second set 6-1 for the clinch. That helped take the pressure off the two lower courts, where Malech and fellow freshmen Marko Mandic each bounced back from dropping the first set to win third-set tiebreakers by identical 10-8 scores to finish off the match 7-2.
Pomona-Pitzer will play their championship match at the Biszantz Tennis Center tomorrow morning, while Trinity will meet Washington University in the third place match. Case Western and Wesleyan will play for fifth, and Whitman will meet Kenyon for seventh.
