The Cal Poly men’s tennis team (13-5) lost their first match since Feb. 23 to UNLV (10-7) 4-2 this past Wednesday, but bounced back right away to beat UC Irvine (12-9) Saturday 5-2.
The match against the Anteaters was the Mustangs’ first conference match of the season. Cal Poly is currently tied with Hawai’i for first place in the Big West Conference.
Cal Poly vs. UNLV
The Mustangs have had most of their struggles on the road this season, and their match against UNLV was no different. The match started off with the Mustangs dropping the doubles point.
The Mustangs fell behind early in their quest for the doubles point as freshmen Roman Shenkiryk and Andrew Whitehouse fell to UNLV’s Alexandr Cozbinov and Courtney Lock 6-2.
Shortly after the Rebels clinched the doubles point as junior Dominic Bechard and senior Karl Enander lost to Jordan Sauer and Ruben Alberts 6-4.
This meant even though junior Josh Ortlip and senior Axel Damiens were one game away from victory(5-4) the match was not completed because it did not effect the result.
In singles, the Rebels gained the four points they needed to clinch the match when Ortlip lost to Cozbinov 6-3, 6-1, freshman Alexander Stater lost to Richard Solberg 6-4, 6-4, and Enander lost to Sauer 7-6, 6-1.
Sophomore Antoine Noel and Damiens earned the two points for the Mustangs. Noel beat Alberts 6-1, 6-3 and Damiens defeated Eric Samuelsson 6-3, 6-4.
Cal Poly vs. UC Irvine
In their win against Irvine Saturday, the Mustangs got off to another slow start by losing the doubles point, but played well enough in singles to recover.
Ortlip and Damiens lost to Mason Hansen and Luca Marquard 6-4, dropping their doubles record 9-4. Shortly after Shenkiryk and Whitehouse evened the doubles at a set a piece, defeating Vatsal Bajpai and Bruce Man-Son-Hing 6-2.
The Anteaters clinched the doubles point as Enander and Bechard lost to Daniel Gealer and Luis Lopez 6-1.
The Mustangs won 5 out of 6 singles after losing the doubles point to win the match.
Bechard finished first, defeating Sasha Krasnov 6-3, 6-0. Next, Enander took down Bajpai 6-2, 6-3 and then Noel beat Marquad 6-4, 7-6.
Ortlip finished next defeating Lopez 7-6, 6-4. Stater won the match for the Mustangs with his win against Hansen 7-6, 7-5 (5-10).
The Mustangs return to action Sunday at UC Riverside at 2 p.m.