PASADENA, Calif. — The No. 18 Caltech men's tennis team hosted the No. 32 Washington & Lee University Generals on Wednesday in an afternoon home showdown. The Beavers picked up four victories across the nine matches played, with one coming in doubles action and the other three via singles play.

Senior Andrei Staicu (Cary, N.C. / Green Hope) teamed up with first-year Eric He (Martinsville, N.J. / Bridgewater Raritan) in third doubles, where the duo collected a strong 8-6 win. The duo broke their opposites at 6-4 before the Generals broke back three games later to get within one at 7-6. The Beavers were not dismayed, however, as they broke the visitors one crucial time to nab the 8-6 victory.

The Beavers split singles action 3-3, with their first victory coming on Court 6, where He picked up his second win of the day with a commanding 6-4, 6-1 win. With the result, He improves to 3-0 in singles play in his young collegiate career.

Senior Kyle McCandless (Lexington, Mass. / Lexington), who most recently ranked No. 45 in the nation among all Div. III singles players, finished a few minutes later on Court 1 in what was one of the most impressive singles wins of his career. The senior topped Washington & Lee's top player – who last ranked No. 8 in the country – to pick up his first singles victory against a nationally-ranked singles foe.

McCandless fought valiantly in the first set, picking up a critical game at 5-6 to push to a tiebreak; there, the senior secured the 7-5 tiebreaker victory to go up one set to none.

It was all McCandless in the second set as he earned a dominant 6-1 victory to earn the 7-6 (5), 6-1 win.

Caltech picked up its fourth point of the match on Court 5, as first-year Constantin Cedillo-Vayson de Pradenne (Paris / Lycée Jean de La Fontaine) clawed from behind to improve to 3-0 this season. The rookie dropped the first set 4-6 before fighting to a narrow 7-6 (4) victory in the second set and a commanding 10-5 win in the superset tiebreaker.

Next up for the Beavers is another home contest as they take on the Owls of Kenyon College on Monday, Mar. 4 at 4 p.m. Find live video and match scores at gocaltech.com/coverage.

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