Claremont, Calif. - The No. 3 Pomona-Pitzer Men's Tennis team dropped a tight 5-4 decision to No. 17 Redlands by the narrowest of margins in the morning and then earned a 9-0 win over Caltech in the afternoon in its final dual matches of the regular season.

With the split the Sagehens are now 23-5 overall and 5-2 in the SCIAC, while Redlands improves to 14-7 overall and 5-1 in conference play with the win.

The Redlands match came right down to a third set tiebreaker at No. 1 singles for the deciding point between Connor Hudson of the Sagehens and Patrick Lipscomb of the Bulldogs. Lipscomb took the first set 6-2, before Hudson bounced back for a 6-3 win in the second.

Each player held serve down the stretch to get to a tiebreaker, with Lipscomb fighting off a break point at 5-5. Lipscomb then built a 5-1 lead in the tiebreaker, before Hudson won two straight to get back to 5-3, but Lipscomb then won the final two points to seal it.  

Pomona-Pitzer was playing without its usual No. 2 singles and doubles player Jake Yasgoor, who was held out with an injury. Sophomore Graham Maassen stepped into his spot in doubles and helped the Sagehens to a win with Jonathan Kim, making the score 2-1. Hudson and freshman Kalyan Chadalavada won at No. 1 doubles as well.

Maassen and freshman Sam Malech (No. 6) picked up singles wins for the Sagehens, but Redlands was able to sweep the top three spots and earn a win at No. 5 to get the four points they needed for the win.

In the nightcap, the Sagehens defeated Caltech 9-0 as seniors Kevin Wei (pictured), Michael Chang and Connor Sutton won at No. 2, No. 5 and No. 6 singles in their final regular season home matches at Pauley Tennis Complex. Wei had a battle at No. 2 with Ruthwick Pathireddy of Caltech, but earned a 7-6, 7-6 win. Sophomore Spencer Simonides won at No. 1, freshman Marko Mandic won at No. 3 and Chadalavada won at No. 4.

Pomona-Pitzer will be back in action in two weeks for the Ojai Valley Championships from April 24-26.