PASADENA, Calif. — The No. 20 Caltech men's tennis team kicked off conference play with a 7-2 victory over the Whittier College Poets on Friday in an afternoon clash at home. With the win, the team improves to 8-4 on the season and 1-0 against opponents in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC).

The Beavers opened the action with a dominant doubles win on Court 1, as seniors Kyle McCandless (Lexington, Mass. / Lexington) and Daniel Wen (McLean, Va. / Thomas Jefferson HS for Science & Technology) cruised to an 8-1 win. With the result, the duo – who last ranked No. 6 in the West region doubles rankings – improves to 8-2 together this season.

Caltech picked up its second team point of the day just moments later as junior Aditya Srinivasan (Rochester, N.Y. / Pittsford Sutherland) and rookie Eric He (Martinsville, N.J. / Bridgewater Raritan) secured a strong 8-2 victory on Court 3.

Wen, He and McCandless soon each picked up their second win of the afternoon as all three Beavers earned two-set singles victories.

Wen finished first with a dominant 6-0, 6-1 performance in third singles before He wrapped up minutes later in the fifth position with an equally impressive 6-1, 6-0 finish.

McCandless clinched the head-to-head team match on Court 1; the 15th-ranked player in the region posted a 6-3, 6-3 score against Whittier's top player.

Caltech added another point to the team score as first-year Constantin Cedillo-Vayson de Pradenne (Paris / Lycée Jean de La Fontaine) won his match in the second spot. After getting broken to go down 5-6 in the opening set, the rookie broke his opponent right back to force a tiebreak; there, he took over with a dominant 7-3 tiebreak win. The Beaver fell in the second set before taking the match in the deciding superset tiebreaker, 1-0 (10-8). Cedillo-Vayson de Pradenne now improves to 11-1 on the year in singles.

Senior Andrei Staicu (Cary, N.C. / Green Hope) toughed out one more victory for the squad on Court 6 in what became the final match to finish. After taking the first set 6-2 and dropping the second 3-6, Staicu fought valiantly throughout the final set, breaking his opponent at 5-4 to avoid a tiebreak and win the match.

Head coach Adam Clark was pleased with how the group performed in their first interconference match of 2024.

"Tricky conditions out there today but I am glad the rain held off and we walked away with the win," said Clark. "Good to kick things off in SCIAC's and get the fun underway," he said.

"We know we will have to raise our level going into a tough match tomorrow and I am excited to see how the guys will respond. I know we will be ready and it should be a good one out there."

It is a quick turnaround for the Beavers, who take on the No. 23 Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on the road on Saturday, Apr. 6 at 4 p.m. Follow along online at gocaltech.com/coverage.

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