PASADENA, Calif. — For the fourth straight full season, the Caltech Men's Tennis team has qualified for the SCIAC Postseason Tournament semifinals by finishing among the top four teams in the conference standings. The team earned the No. 2 seed in the 2023 tournament and will host No. 3 seed University of Redlands this Friday, Apr. 28 at 6:00 p.m.

This year's team finished second in the conference standings after boasting an impressive 5-2 conference record with wins over Whittier, Redlands, Chapman, Cal Lutheran and Occidental.

Both Caltech and Redlands finished with a 5-2 record, though Caltech earned the higher seed and home-court advantage by defeating the Bulldogs 5-4 earlier this season.

It has been a historic season for the Beavers, who sport an 11-6 overall record, a No. 15 national ranking and No. 3 regional ranking among NCAA Division III institutions.

A large part of that success has come from junior Kyle McCandless, who played in the first singles spot all season. The Massachusetts native is ranked No. 11 in the region and has earned seven singles wins, including one over a fellow regionally-ranked opponent. In doubles, McCandless has paired up with junior Daniel Wen all season, where they've picked up ten wins -- one against a regionally-ranked team – and a 5-2 conference record.

Not far behind McCandless in the regional singles rankings is junior Ishaan Kannan, who has earned the No. 21 spot in the West for his strong play. Kannan has earned six wins in the second singles spot this year in addition to eight wins in doubles action, most of which have come with first-year teammate Andrew Zabelo.

Zabelo has competed in the third spot for most of this season and has earned nine wins thus far in 2023, three coming versus SCIAC foes. Wen has totaled 13 wins in solo play this year, putting him tied for first all-time in the Caltech record books for most singles wins in one season. He enters Friday's contest on a nine-match win streak with a perfect 7-0 record in conference action.

Wen has primarily competed in the fourth spot with one victory coming on Court 3. Junior Victor Li has notched 11 wins this year with a 4-2 conference record, primarily in the fifth spot, while senior Rishi Gundakaram has six wins – most coming in sixth singles.

Also grabbing wins this year are sophomore Andrei Staicu and senior Nathan Zou.

Zou and Gundakaram are 4-1 in doubles play versus SCIAC pairs; Zou sports a 6-1 record after picking up two wins with Staicu.

Caltech will face a talented Redlands squad that ranks 35th nationally and eighth regionally in the DIII rankings. Their No. 1 singles player was last ranked tenth in the regional poll, while their No. 2 player was ranked 22nd.

The Bulldogs' best doubles pairing ranks fourth in the region, though they were upset by Kannan and Zabelo in their match earlier this year, 8-7 (4).

The Beavers won all three doubles matches in their previous clash. The team then picked up the two necessary singles wins to claim the victory; Wen won first (6-0, 6-2) before Gundakaram clinched the match (6-3, 6-4).

The winner of the semifinal matchup will face the winner of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer for the SCIAC title. The final will be held Saturday, Apr. 29 with the time to be announced later.

For those unable to cheer on the Beavers in person this Friday, Courts 1 through 4 will be streamed live via Track.Tennis, with complete live scores available at GoCaltech.com/tennisscores.