PASADENA, Calif. (Feb. 19, 2022) – The Caltech men's tennis team was victorious against the University of California, Santa Cruz in its second home match of the season on Saturday evening. The Beavers defeated the Banana Slugs, 8-1, sweeping the doubles portion of the match.

As of December 2021, sophomores Daniel Wen (McLean, Va. / Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology) and Kyle McCandless (Lexington, Mass. / Lexington) are the 10-ranked doubles team in the Division III West Region and battled the Banana Slugs' pairing to win first doubles by a final score of 8-6. Sophomore Ishaan Kannan (Scarsdale, N.Y., Horace Mann) and senior Jake Will (Honolulu, Hawaii / Punahou School) followed their lead in defeating their opponents by the same score at court #2. Closing out doubles, juniors Rishi Gundakaram (Wyoming, Del. Caeser Rodney) and John Kim (Cupertino, Calif. / Menlo School) played a relentless, hard-fought match that forced a tie breaker. Kim suffered an injury during the tiebreaker set but made a swift recovery and won two consecutive services. On match point, Kim served an ace down the line, winning the third doubles match for the Beavers and setting the tone for a dominant singles round.

The Beavers found themselves down a break going into the second and third singles. Despite the deficit, McCandles and Will retired their opponents with two default victories by respective scores of 6-2, 3-3, def. and 5-3, def. That paired well with the momentum already rolling from a quick win by senior Matthew Gonzalgo (Plantation, Fla. / St. Thomas Aquinas) for the clinching point, as he defeated his opponent 6-0, 6-2 in #4 singles, while Wen made a successful home debut with a 7-5, 7-4 win at fifth singles. Gundakaram won a narrow tiebreak at #6 to claim another straight-set victory, 6-0, 7-6.

Next up for Head Coach Jason Cohen and the Beavers will be the Pacific Coast Doubles Tournament in La Jolla, Calif. from March 4-5.  Visit GoCaltech.com for updates on the tournament schedule and match times.