PASADENA, Calif. – Tennis fans were treated to a thriller at the Caltech Tennis Courts on Saturday afternoon as the Beavers prevailed in a back-and-forth match against No. 40 Whitman College.

"Building championship cultures takes patience and guts, and we made a step in that direction today" Head Coach Benay Weintraub said. "The team faced many obstacles but they all remained patient and they executed from start to finish. I'm proud of how the team stepped up."

Whitman took the first match point of the day in Doubles, but Caltech battled back to win the session, encountering a rain delay before claiming points on Doubles #1 and #2. Emily Zhang and Anika Arora came away with an 8-6 victory on Court 1, and the Payal Patel / Hannah Ramsperger duo outlasted their rivals in a 7-5 tiebreak to claim an 8-7 victory.

Sophomore Anna Szczuka picked up the first match point of the singles session, quickly defeating her opponent 6-2, 6-1, but Whitman won the next two matches to tie things up with Caltech 3-3 overall.

With just the even-numbered courts still active and all six players splitting sets, it was junior Payal Patel who pulled Caltech back into the lead, overcoming a setback in the middle set to earn a 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4 win on Singles #4.  Ramsperger shut the door on Whitman shortly thereafter, bouncing back after a loss in the first set to clinch the team victory with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 win in Singles #2.

Patel prasied Whitman's performance and credited Caltech's win to mental toughness throughout the long matches. "Regardless of whether we won or lost, the team should be proud of how hard we fought, despite the loud cheers from the other team and the brief rain delay," she said. "I think we owe a lot of this to the fact that we're often challenged off the court, in academics, so we're kind of used to being in uncomfortable situations."

And putting an exclamation point on the day was first-year Ritali Jain, who wrapped up #6 Singles with her first collegiate win by scores of 6-4, 4-6, and 6-4.

Weintraub and the Beavers will next take on national No. 9 Williams College on Tuesday, March 19.