Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

PASADENA, Calif. – The Whittier College men's tennis team earned their first win of 2015 Saturday as they powered past the Beavers of Caltech 7-2 to move to 1-1 on the young season.

Again playing without junior Samuel Farmer (Carlsbad, Calif.), Head Coach Ben Belletto was forced to move the lineup around putting in Joseph Laguna (Santa Ana, Calif.) and Jeff Lee (South Korea) into the starting lineup.

Troy Chavez (Temecula, Calif.) and Tyler Linscott (Tuscon, AZ) coming off the upset win of Bates No. 1 duo again came up big pulling off the 8-6 victory over Ruthwick and Sathwick Pathireddy.

David Stanko (Morena Valley, Calif.) and Shogo Shimizu (Tokyo, Japan) found their spark in doubles winning 8-4 against Morgan Lebby and Rushikesh Joshi at No. 2.  But at No. 3 freshman Ian Ross (Altadena, Calif.) and Laguna wound up falling in a tiebreaker 9-8 (5) to a Mehta and Alex Henny that kept the Beavers in the match.

In singles, Whittier rolled winning five of six singles matches.  Ross bounced back to earn his first collegiate win 6-1, 6-1 over Henny at No. 5.  Shimizu made quick work of Rushikesh Joshi at No. 2 6-2, 6-1 and Chavez secured the win at No. 3 winning 6-3, 6-2 over S. Pathireddy.

Linscott wound up in a battle at No. 4 edging Lebby 7-6(5) before rolling 6-2 in the second set.  Lee hopped into the singles lineup at No. 6 and earned his first collegiate victory as well in a tight three setter 6-3, 1-6, 10-4 over a Mehta.

The lone loss for the Poets came at No. 1 from Stanko who dropped a tight three setter to R. Pathireddy.  After blowing past his opponent 6-2 in the first set he couldn't close the door allowing Pathireddy to come back to win 7-5 in the second and 10-4 in the third set super tiebreaker.    

Whittier returns home to begin a ten match home stand stretching from March 5-March 26.  Their next match will be against Mary Washington on Thursday, March 5 beginning at 2:00pm.