PASADENA (Feb. 18, 2019) – The No. 32 Caltech men's tennis team gave No. 21 Brandeis University a run for its money in Monday's home men's tennis match.

The Beavers gained four victories on the Judges, all of which came in singles action. Sophomore Varun Shanker ( Midland, Mich. / Midland Dow) continued his dominance from Saturday with a 6-4, 6-4, win at first singles while classmate and doubles partner James Wei (Chappaqua, N.Y. / Horace Greeley) took care of business at second singles, 6-4, 7-6. The Beavers also extracted a pair of three-set wins out of their bottom-three. Junior Miha Valencic (Colleyville, Texas / Grapevine) got the nod at fourth singles, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and senior Derik Nguyen (Anaheim, Calif. / Canyon) rallied at sixth singles, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. A win from freshman Matthew Gonzalgo (Plantation, Fla. / St. Thomas Aquinas) would have given Caltech five singles wins and won them the match outright, but the freshman came up shy in a competitive match at third singles, 6-3, 3-6, 1-6.

Caltech succeeded in singles in spite of beginning the round of action in a 3-0 hole from doubles play. The Beavers came within two games or fewer on two different occasions with fourth-ranked Shanker and Wei falling in a tiebreaker, 7-4, and Nguyen alongside freshman Patryk Kozlowski (Irvine, Calif. / University High) coming up short 8-6.

Head Coach Jason Cohen and the Beavers will next take the court in the regular season next month when they host Rhodes College on Mar. 4 at 3 p.m.

Follow and show support for your Caltech Beavers on Twitter (@CaltechBeavers), Facebook,YouTube and Instagram!)