Claremont, Calif. - The Pomona-Pitzer Men's Tennis team had to rally from the brink twice in order to pull out 5-4 wins over both Tufts and Skidmore on Wednesday afternoon at Pauley Tennis Complex.
With the wins, the No. 9 Sagehens improve to 14-3 on the year, including 14-2 against Division III opponents. Tufts falls to 1-1 with the loss, while Skidmore slips to 6-2.
Pomona-Pitzer was at the end of a grueling stretch of its schedule, that has resulted in eight highly-competitive matches in the span of a week. It started last Wednesday with a 5-4 win over Bowdoin, which was followed by two wins at the Stag-Hen on Friday over No. 12 Case Western and No. 6 Trinity (Texas), before a loss to CMS on Saturday. Yesterday, the Sagehens had a doubleheader that included a 7-2 win over Trinity (Conn.) and a 6-3 win over No. 1 ranked and defending national champion Amherst.
In order to pull out the wins today, Pomona-Pitzer had to come back from down 2-1 after doubles, and with sophomore Jake Yasgoor (pictured) and senior Connor Hudson coming up big while playing through injury.
Yasgoor and junior Jonathan Kim, who has played in singles and doubles in every match in this week-long stretch, came through for the lone doubles point against Tufts at No. 1, while Hudson, who usually plays at No. 1 with Kalyan Chadalavada, sat out to get an injury to his hip treated. The Sagehens fell behind 4-2, though, after losses at No. 5 and No. 6 singles around Kim's win at No. 2.
Yasgoor, meanwhile, went down with a groin pull during a first-set tiebreaker (trailing 2-0) and needed a five-minute injury timeout for a taping. He managed to gut out a 7-5 win in the tiebreaker, but was on the ropes in the second set against Nik Telkedzhiev with his mobility severely hampered. However, down 4-2, he managed to win four games in a row, breaking the hard-hitting Telkedzhiev's serve twice, to come back for a win that swung the momentum Pomona-Pitzer's way.
With the win at No. 1 in hand, the Sagehens had sophomores Graham Maassen at No. 3 and Josh Kim at No. 4 both rally back after dropping the first to pick up three-set wins. Maassen had a tough fight for his split at No. 3, winning 6-4 in the second over Rob Jacobson, but both players were able to ride the momentum in the third for 6-1 wins to close out the 5-4 comeback.
Yasgoor's injury left him unable to go in the nightcap against Skidmore, while Hudson was able to return to the lineup after a full day of treatment to his hip. Hudson and Chadalavada came up big in doubles with the Sagehens down 2-0, fighting off two match points to break Skidmore's serve and tie it 8-8 to force a tiebreaker. Once in the tiebreaker, the duo took control for a 7-1 win to make the score 2-1 going into singles.
Skidmore took the first singles point at No. 4 as Lucas Pickering gave the Thoroughbreds a 3-1 lead. However, Hudson was able to respond with a key win at No. 1, edging Kai Yuen Leung 6-3, 7-6 (7-5 in the tiebreaker to close to within 3-2).
Junior Thomas Low earned a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 6 to tie the score 3-3, and Josh Kim outlasted his opponent in three sets (6-3, 3-6, 6-3) to give Pomona-Pitzer the lead. Freshman Sam Malech, who was on the ropes at No. 5 singles (down 7-5, 4-1), won the final five games of the second set to split and then took the third set 6-2 to give the Sagehens the clinch. Once the match was clinched, Jonathan Kim retired at No. 2 (down 4-0 in the third) to make the final score 5-4.
Pomona-Pitzer will take six days off before another big week next week, facing Middlebury (Tuesday), Williams (Wednesday), Chicago (Friday) and UC Santa Cruz (Saturday).
