PASADENA (Feb. 15, 2020) – The Caltech men's tennis team turned in a dominant performance in its first home match of the season against the University of California, Santa Cruz on Saturday morning. The Beavers defeated the Banana Slugs, 8-1, while sweeping the singles portion of the morning.

Junior Varun Shanker (Midland, Mich. / Midland Dow) made a statement at first singles as he looks to rejoin the national singles rankings. Shanker defeated his opponent, 6-1, 6-1, and doubles partner James Wei (Chappaqua, N.Y. / Horace Greeley) won his first set by the same score at second singles before his opponent retired. From there, every Beaver won in straight sets. Junior Kevin Yu (Mason, Ohio / Cincinnati Country Day) made a successful home debut with a 6-1, 6-3 victory at third singles and sophomore Matthew Gonzalgo (Plantation, Fla. / St. Thomas Aquinas) won at fourth singles, 6-4, 6-1. Freshman John Kim (Cupertino, Calif. / Menlo School) and senior Miha Valencic (Colleyville, Texas / Grapevine) rounded out the singles wins thanks to a 6-4, 7-6 victory and a 6-2, 6-0 victory moving down the order.

Caltech's double-play set the tone for the dominant singles showing. Shanker and Wei, the eighth-ranked doubles team in the nation turned in a hard-fought 8-6 win at first doubles, while Kim and sophomore doubles partner Patryk Kozlowski (Irvine, Calif. / University High) pulled out a narrow 8-7 (8-6) victory at second doubles. 

"Doubles was pretty tight most of the way but second doubles came out with a big win in the tiebreaker after missing out on some match points at 7-6," Head Coach Jason Cohen said. "That gave us a lot of confidence moving into singles and we really played some great tennis there."

Cohen and the Beavers will look to make it two-straight home victories when they host No. 30 Southwestern University on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 10 a.m.

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