PASADENA, Calif. — The No. 25 Caltech men's tennis team defeated Pacific University (Ore.) by a score of 7-2 on Tuesday in a home clash between two ITA West Region foes. It was a strong victory for the nationally-ranked Beavers, who have now won back-to-back matches and three of their last four.
The contest began with doubles action where seniors Kyle McCandless (Lexington, Mass. / Lexington) and Daniel Wen (McLean, Va. / Thomas Jefferson HS for Science & Technology) earned an impressive victory, cruising to 8-3 to give the squad its first team point of the day.
The Beavers showed out in singles play as all six Beavers picked up wins; no Caltech player dropped a single set across any of the six matches.
Wen finished up first on Court 4 after cruising to a 6-0, 6-1 victory before first-year Constantin Cedillo-Vayson de Pradenne (Paris / Lycée Jean de La Fontaine) scored the 6-1, 6-3 result on Court 3 a few minutes later.
Fellow rookie Eric He (Martinsville, N.J. / Bridgewater Raritan) gave the Beavers its next win on Court 5 with a set score of 6-2, 6-0 before sophomore Andrew Zabelo (Florham Park, N.J. / Newark Academy) clinched the overall team match on Court 2 with a 6-2, 6-2 win.
First-year Tejas Ram (Allen, Texas / Allen) soon secured the 6-4, 6-3 win in sixth singles, pushing all attention to McCandless on Court 1 as the only remaining match. After taking the first set 6-2, McCandless broke his opponent in the fifth game of the second set to go up 3-2; the visitor broke right back but McCandless broke the Boxer yet again before holding at 5-3 and breaking one more time to win 6-3.
Head coach Adam Clark was pleased with how the team competed.
"[It was a] scrappy fight from the guys today to pull this win out," Clark said. "While we might have struggled a bit to get going, we definitely finished strong and I'm happy we were able to show that resilience. We are a battle-tested bunch and we were able to tap into that mentality to get the job done."
"We know we will have to be a bit better tomorrow but I've got no doubt the guys will be ready to fight," he said.
The team will take a quick rest before taking on George Fox University at home on Wednesday, Mar. 27 with action beginning at 10 a.m. Cheer on the Beavers in person and follow along online at gocaltech.com/coverage.
