Claremont, Calif. - The No. 3 Pomona-Pitzer Men's Tennis team took a 2-1 lead after doubles and had a chance to knock off top-ranked CMS, but the Stags were able to gut out a 6-3 win over the Sagehens on Friday afternoon at the Pauley Tennis Complex.
The loss drops the Sagehens to 22-4 on the season, with two of the losses coming to CMS (and one to Point Loma Nazarene of NAIA). CMS improves to 20-1 with the win, with its only loss coming to Division I Penn.
Senior Connor Hudson (pictured) had the lone win in singles for Pomona-Pitzer, but it was a big one for his personal NCAA qualification hopes as he defeated Warren Wood, the top ranked player in the West Region, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4. Hudson tralied 5-3 in the first set tiebreaker, but won the final four points in a row to take the first set and then broke serve for a 6-4 win in the second, which tied the score 3-3.
CMS then went ahead 4-3 with a win from Maxwell Macey at No. 6, but Antony Bello won the second set to earn a split with Joe Dorn at No. 4, and Graham Maassen and Daniel Morkovine were locked in a close battle at No. 5, with the Sagehens needing both to come away with the win.
Dorn jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third set (up one break), and Bello had a couple of break points to try to get back on serve but could not convert and fell behind 5-2. He fought off four match points, two on his serve to hold for 5-3 and two on Dorn's serve to try to break for 5-4, but Dorn eventually came in on a volley on his fifth match point to take a 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 win to seal the match. Soon after, Morkovine was able to take the final point for the Stags by a 6-4, 7-5 count.
Pomona-Pitzer had a chance to sweep doubles, after Jonathan Kim and Maassen earned an 8-4 win at No. 2, and both No. 1 and No. 3 looked destined for tiebreakers. However CMS was able to break at No. 1 for a 9-7 win, with Dorn and Wood prevailing over Hudson and Kalyan Chadalavada.
The Sagehens were able to take the swing point in doubles, though, as sophomore Spencer Simonides had back to back service winners for a 4-1 lead, and Bello had a forehand return for a winner to take the tiebreaker 7-4 and give Pomona-Pitzer a 2-1 lead. Bello and Simonides provided the only point for Pomona-Pitzer in their first meeting with CMS in the finals of the Stag-Hen Invitational, which CMS won 8-1 back on March 14.
Pomona-Pitzer hosts its final two regular season matches tomorrow, facing Redlands at 10 a.m. and Caltech at 2 p.m.
