PASADENA, Calif. – Caltech Men's Tennis closed out the home portion of the 2023 regular season with a long and drawn-out but victorious match against the California Lutheran University Kingsmen Saturday afternoon.
Cal Lutheran jumped out into the lead with the first match point of doubles play, but the remaining matches remained tightly locked and both required tiebreaks after all four pairs won seven games. Finally junior
Andrei Staicu and senior
Nathan Zou prevailed with an 8-6 score in the extra frame to deny the Kingsmen a doubles sweep, but Cal Lutheran led 2-1 heading into singles play.
Zou then raced to a 6-1, 6-2 win on Court 6 for his second match point of the day in his final regular season home match as a Beaver, tying the match at 2-2. Wen followed closely with 6-3 and 6-1 sets in #4 Singles to give Caltech a 3-2 lead.
Junior
Victor Li brought Caltech within one point of clinching the match with matching 6-3 sets on Court 5, but the Kingsmen kept the match within their reach with a singles win on Court 2 to make it a 4-3 overall score.
With the remaining two matchups having split the first two sets, the match continued into its fifth hour before all was settled. Finally, first-year
Andrew Zabelo clinched the win for Caltech in #3 Singles with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 score line, guaranteeing the Beavers a winning record in 2023 SCIAC play with their fourth conference win.
Finally, junior
Kyle McCandless finished off his opponent with 5-7, 7-6 (3) and 6-3 marks to bring the match to a close with Caltech defeating Cal Lutheran 6-3.
"It was a great win for the men today against a great Cal Lutheran team," Head Coach
Matt Brisotti said. "Cal Lutheran gave us everything they had, and we responded well after being down in doubles. The men did a great job of getting quick scoreboard pressure with Nate Zou getting off the court quickly to even things up, and then Dan and Victor shortly thereafter. It was a great singles effort by everyone up and down the lineup and the guys supporting those on the court made an impact today. It was great to see alumni in town for these matches as well."
Caltech will next face Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on the road on Tuesday, Apr. 18 at 4 p.m.
