Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College men's tennis team after having a lengthy spring break with no matches played two in one day cruising to the 9-0 sweep of the Rams of Cornell College and then dropping their first SCIAC match against the No. 12 Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer 7-2.

Whittier now runs their record to 9-5, 0-1 SCIAC, while Pomona-Pitzer moves to 8-8, 2-1 SCIAC.

Match 1 (Cornell College) – W, 9-0

In the first matchup of the day the Poets took on the Rams of Cornell College who were from Iowa.  Right from the get go it was all Poets as they swept doubles play with their starting six with Andrew Hansen and Chris Schommer cruising to the 8-0 win at No. 2, while freshman duo Shogo Shimizu and Matthew Herron pulled off the 8-3 win at No. 3.

At No. 1 Patricio Carregha and Julian Seneviratne found themselves in a hole down 5-2 early but came back to rattle off six straight games to pull off the 8-5 win.

In singles play head Coach David Bojalad moved the lineup around moving Schommer up to No. 1 singles and plugged in Jonathan Pollare into the No. 2 slot, Taylor Dimler into No. 3, David De Leon into No. 4, Samuel Granberry into No. 5, and Charlie Wyatt into No. 6.  Even with the changes the Poets still cruised to the 9-0 victory despite Dimler going to three sets and Pollare being pushed to the brink in their respective matches.

Pollare used one break of serve in each set to pull off the 6-4, 7-5 win, while Dimler went the distance winning the first set 6-3, dropping the second 7-5, but pulling off the 10-6 win in the third set super tiebreaker.

Doubles:

1)      Seneviratne/Carregha def. Wilkinson/Klauer (8-5)

2)      Hansen/Schommer def. DeSilva/Bradfield (8-0)

3)      Shimizu/Herron def. Russikoff/Reyes (8-3)

Singles:

1)      Schommer def. DeSilva (6-2, 6-0)

2)      Pollare def. Russikof (6-4, 7-5)

3)      Dimler def. Bradfield (6-3, 5-7, 10-6)

4)      DeLeon def. Wilkinson (6-1, 6-3)

5)      Granberry def. Gelkand (6-1, 6-1)

6)      Wyatt def. Klauer (6-1, 6-3)         

Match 2 (Pomona-Pitzer) – L, 7-2     

In the second match of the day the Poets found themselves matched up against the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer a foe who they have battled with in past years but fell 7-2 despite two matches that went the distance.

Pomona-Pitzer jumped out to an early 2-1 lead after doubles after they won at No. 2 8-2 and at No. 3 8-5.  The Poets lone win came at No. 1 where Carregha and Seneviratne defeated the No. 7 team in the West Region in Tommy Meyer and Uday Singh 8-6.  They had an opportunity to serve out the match at 7-4 up 40-love but saw the Sagehen duo wipe away seven match points and win the next two games before Carregha served out the match at love to get the Poets on the scoreboard.

Into singles play the Poets continued to play aggressively led by freshman Shimizu who forced his opponent Mike Chang into cramps at No. 6 cruising to the 6-1, 6-1 victory.  This was the lone win in singles for Whittier despite Schommer at No. 3 going the distance against Max Sabel along with Hansen who went three sets at No. 5 against Frankie Allinson.

Whittier looks to get their first SCIAC win as they take on the Stags of Claremont-M-S this morning beginning at 10am followed by a match Tuesday, April 3 against Gustavus Adolfus beginning at 3pm. 

Singles:

1)      Seneviratne/Carregha def. Meyer/Singh (8-6)

2)      Sabel/Allinson def. Hansen/Schommer (8-2)

3)      Wiechert/Groth def. Herron/Shimizu (8-5)

Doubles:

1)      Meyer def. Seneviratne (7-5, 6-3)

2)      Wiechert def. Carregha (6-4, 6-4)

3)      Sabel def. Schommer (4-6, 6-1, 6-2)

4)      Hudson def. Herron (6-3, 6-1)

5)      Allinson def. Hansen (1-6, 6-1, 6-1)

6)      Shimizu def. Chang (6-1, 6-1)