Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College women's tennis team returned from spring break and wound up dropping a SCIAC matchup 7-2 against the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer who are ranked No. 15 in the country and No. 3 in the West Region.
Whittier continues to seek their first SCIAC victory but now drop to .500 at 6-6, 0-2 SCIAC.
Pomona jumped out to an early lead 3-0 after doubles despite a strong comeback effort from the No. 1 team of Liliana Serylo and Chloe Dredge who were down 7-2 but fought their way back to get within three and then had two break point opportunities in the ensuing game but was unable to convert having their comeback fall short falling 8-4.
At No. 2 the duo of Rachel Sugiyama and Adrienne Hamada competed early staying on serve until it was 4-3 when Pomona ran away with it late rattling off five straight games to win 8-3.
Into singles play Whittier continued their aggressive play and saw junior Lauren Gelgur at No. 6 play one of the best matches all year using one break of serve in each set to pull off the 6-3, 6-4 victory improving her record to 5-4.
At No. 5 freshman Sugiyama had an opportunity to steal the first set away from her opponent as she attempted to serve it out at 5-4 but was broken despite having a set point. Her opponent Woods then won the next two games to pull off the 7-5 first set win and followed that up with a 6-2 win in the second set.
But the match of the day belonged to sophomore Hamada who used penetrating groundstrokes and great defense to pull off the three set victory. She jumped out quickly to a 5-2 lead in the first set but saw it slip away as her opponent came back winning four straight games to jump out in front 6-5.
Hamada then stepped up to the occasion and held serve in the ensuing game forcing the first set into a tiebreaker. In the breaker she fell behind early 5-2 but fought her way back to even it up at 5-5 and then fought off a set point, and then forced two errors from her opponent to pull off the 8-6 win in the first set breaker.
The second set proved to be different though as her opponent Arthi Padmanabhau came back to cruise to the 6-1 victory to force a third and deciding ten point tiebreaker.
In the breaker, Hamada and Padmanabhau remained close throughout until Hamada induced two errors from her opponent and a blistering winner that pulled her away late clinching the 10-4 win in the super tiebreaker.
The Purple & Gold get a week off where they will begin preparing for back to back SCIAC matchups occurring on Friday, April 6 against Occidental and then Saturday, April 7 against Caltech.
Doubles:
1) Solomon/Wand def. Serylo/Dredge (8-4)
2) Padmanabhau/Chao def. Hamada/Sugiyama (8-3)
3) Kawahara/Holsted def. Oliker/Weintraub (8-1)
Singles:
1) Solomon def. Serylo (6-3, 6-2)
2) Chao def. Dredge (6-1, 6-0)
3) Hamada def. Padmanabhau (7-6 (6), 1-6, 10-4)
4) Holsted def. Weintraub (6-2, 6-1)
5) Woods def. Sugiyama (7-5, 6-2)
6) Gelgur def. Shanholt (6-3, 6-4)
