Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Whittier College men's tennis team continued their hot streak during the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships (SCIAC) upsetting their second straight Top 20 opponent beating No. 17 Cal Lutheran 5-4 to finish 3rd at the SCIAC Championships Sunday.
A day after upsetting No. 18 Redlands 5-4, Whittier continued their strong play sweeping doubles before taking two of six singles matches to clinch the upset victory.
The last time these two teams met in the regular season, Whittier fell 7-2 and lost all three doubles matches. This time around, the Purple & Gold came out hot led by David Konstantinov and Chris Schommer who won 8-2 over Alex Nichols and Connor Treacy. They were followed by Troy Chavez and Samuel Farmer who won 8-6 at No. 2 and Mark Anthony Kenney and Shogo Shimizu who won 8-6 as well at No. 3.
The Kingsmen put up a test in singles winning at No. 1, No. 2, No. 5 and No. 6 but the 3-0 deficit was too much to overcome. Konstantinov fell at No. 1 against Moises Cardenas 7-6, 6-4 and Nichols followed with a 7-6, 6-2 win over Schommer to pull within one. But Whittier would clinch the match with Chavez started things off winning in straights 6-3, 6-1 over Sean Handley at No. 4 before Farmer grabbed the fifth and decisive point at No. 3 winning 6-2, 6-4 against a tough opponent Treacy.
Anthony Kenney had an opportunity to pull off the sixth point for Whittier at No. 5 but couldn't complete the comeback as he fell in three sets 3-6, 6-2, 10-5 to Ian Slater.
Whittier finishes the season 11-11, 5-5 SCIAC and wait to see about Team and Individual Nationals hosted by Claremont-M-S on May 22-24.
