PASADENA, Calif. – Caltech Men's Tennis opened the 2024 regular season against the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs Sunday afternoon, recovering from a pair of close doubles defeats to claim a 7-2 victory.
Senior
Daniel Wen (McLean, Va. / Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology) paired up with rookie
Tejas Ram (Allen, Tex. / Allen) and cruised to an 8-3 win in #1 Doubles, giving Caltech the first match point of the day, before Santa Cruz rallied and took courts 2 and 3 by 8-6 scores.
Wen quickly tied things up with a near-flawless 6-0, 6-1 rout in #2 singles, with senior
Andrei Staicu (Cary, N.C. / Green Hope) close behind in a 6-0, 6-2 win on Court 5. Moments later, Court 6 was settled with the same scores as first-year
Eric He (Martinsville, N.J. / Bridgewater Raritan) brought the Beavers within one point of clinching the match.
The decisive match point came in #1 Singles as senior
Kyle McCandless (Lexington, Mass. / Lexington) took down his opponent in matching 6-2 sets to seal the team victory, leaving the middle courts to finish their third sets as both Beavers rallied for Set 2 comeback wins.
After dropping his first set 2-6, Ram surged ahead to 6-0 and 6-2 victories on Court 3, next to freshman
Constantin Cedillo-Vayson de Pradenne (Paris / Lycée Jean de La Fontaine),
who split his first two sets 1-6 and 6-3. Trailing early in the third set and one game away from defeat, he fought back to tie the score at 6-6, forcing a tiebreak that he handily won 7-4.
"What a great team win today to start the year, and credit to Santa Cruz for a really well-played match," said Head Coach Adam Clark. "We faced some adversity after dropping two tight doubles matches but I was proud of how we battled on every court to sweep the singles. I thought we showed a lot of grit and toughness to close things out, and I'm excited to see how we build from this."
The team will host Brandeis University next, with the match rescheduled for Friday at 3 p.m. on Caltech's tennis courts after Monday's steady rain forced a postponement.
