Mustang Daily Staff Report
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Coming off a Big West Conference Player of the Year Award, Cal Poly men’s tennis senior Andre Dome looks poised for another big season in 2012-13 after winning the 56th Annual Southern California Intercollegiate Championships without dropping a single set throughout the tournament.
Dome, who was the No. 1 seed, earned a spot in the finals with straight set victories over Frederik Wilkens of Azusa Pacific and Thibaut Visy of San Diego on Saturday. He then defeated Clarke Spinosa, also of San Diego, in Sunday’s final, 6-1, 6-4.
The Southern California Intercollegiate Championships is one of the more distinguished collegiate tennis tournaments on the West Coast, Dome said, and he expressed his pride in taking home first place.
“It’s a prestigious tournament, it’s in its 56th year, and if you look at the previous champions, there’s some great players on there.” Dome said. “I’m honored to win the tournament, so it was a good win for me.”
Despite spraining his ankle just a few weeks ago, Dome was able to recover quickly and earn a victory in the final fall tournament of the season. The regular season begins with a match at Saint Mary’s on Jan. 19.
“We’re in good shape,” Dome said of the upcoming regular season. “But I mean we have a long way to go, we’ll start back up in January. It’s a long season, but we know what it took last year to win it and hopefully we can do the same this year.”
After a junior season which included earning a spot in the NCAA tournament in both singles and doubles, Dome provided some lofty expectations after being asked what his goals were heading into his senior year.
“To be an All-American, that’ll probably be my goal. And to make it pretty far in the NCAA tournament.” he said. “Have a big win in the NCAA’s as a team, that’s always been the No. 1 priority for me is a team win. And just go out with a bang, it’s been an enjoyable four years for me, so I just want to keep it going.”
James Corbett and Stephan Teodosescu contributed to this article.