Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College Men's Tennis team cruised past Chapman University 7-2 at the Richard Ettinger Tennis Courts picking up their first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) victory.

The Purple & Gold now improves to 6-8, 1-1 SCIAC.

Whittier got out of the gates quickly sweeping doubles.   Chris Palacio (El Centro, Calif.) and Jesse Eccles (Queenstown, New Zealand) rolled at No. 3 8-1 giving WC an early 1-0 lead.  Pim Van Der Veer (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Matt Yanuck (Studio City, Calif.) followed at No. 2 holding onto an early lead to win 8-3 and at the top spot Maxwell Koszowski (Denver, CO) and Thomas Koszowski (Denver, CO) used two early breaks to clinch the sweep 8-3.

In singles the Poets were pushed dropping two of six matches.  Eccles picked up the first point taking out Luke Bennett at No. 5 6-2, 6-1.  Chapman grabbed two points in the middle at No. 3 and No. 4 to stay within striking distance but they couldn't get anything after that.  Van der Veer at No. 1 after playing a tight 6-4 opening frame was able to get his rhythm rolling in the second 6-0.  T. Koszowski got out in front quickly at No. 2 winning the opening set 6-2 before needing a breaker in the second to pull off the sixth point on the afternoon 7-6. 

The final point for Whittier came at No. 6 from Palacio who needed to go the distance.  He took the opening set 6-3 but couldn't pick up the sweep falling late in the second 7-5.  But he was able to find his groove in the third set super tiebreaker winning 13-11.               

Whittier returns to the court this Saturday, April 6 when they take on Claremont-M-S on the road beginning at 3:00pm.