Cal Poly men’s tennis team remained undefeated at home with a 6-1 win against the University of San Francisco on Sunday at Mustang Complex Center.
Cal Poly opened the doubles competition with a 6-4 win as Senior Karl Enander and junior Dominic Bechard defeated Oliver Poysti and Lucas Mainelli 6-4. However, the Dons would respond after Mert Zincirli and Johan Joenhagen defeated Freshmen Roman Shenkiyrk and Andrew Whitehouse 6-3.
In the deciding doubles set, the Mustangs would solidify the point advantage after the duo of Senior Axel Damiens and junior Josh Ortlip beat Ryan Marker and Paul Giraud 6-3.
In singles play, Cal Poly dominated by winning five out of the six matches, most of which needed a third set.
Bechard opened the singles play with a win against Joenhagen 6-4, 6-0. Whitehouse and Freshman Alex Stater followed next by defeating their opponents in three-set matches to give the Mustangs a 4-0 lead.
After sophomore Antoine Noel came back to defeat Marker 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, the Dons picked up their first point as Poysti defeated Damiens. Ortlip also finished the last match of the day with a win against Zincirli 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) in an intense three-set match.
With the victory, Cal Poly improved their record to 6-3 overall and 3-0 at home to keep them in the mix for first place in the Big West Conference standings.
“All of these close matches are going to have us a little grittier, a little tougher and that’s just going to benefit us as we get further into the season knowing that we can win when we play well, and win when we don’t play our best,” head coach Nick Carless said.
The Mustangs will travel to Loyola Marymount where they will take on the Lions on Friday at 2 p.m. followed by a match against the University of Reno on Saturday at LMU Tennis Center.