PASADENA, Calif. – Nationally-ranked No. 17 Caltech Women's Tennis played host to SCIAC rival and No. 5 Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens Saturday in a hard-fought dual match that ended just beyond the reach of the Beavers. Caltech fell just short by a 4-3 margin after a marathon of a match that began with the Beavers upsetting the top-ranked doubles pair in the ITA West Region.
The first doubles match to finish featured first year
Polaris Hayes (Robbinsville, / N.J. The Pennington School) and sophomore
Anna Tanaka (Honolulu, Hawaii / IMG Academy), who faced up against the No. 6 regionally-ranked Sagehens duo. Their bout concluded with a 3-6 loss after a strong fight by the underclass pair.
Second to finish was the team of seniors
Yoyo Benchetrit (Toronto, Ont. / St. Clements) and
Payal Patel (Cumming, Ga. / South Forsyth), who prevailed in a tiebreaker to win their set 7-6 (5) and even up the score.
With doubles tied 1-1, hope for the doubles point rested on the shoulders of first year
Carissa Gerung (Portland, Ore. / Jesuit) and senior
Anika Arora (Fremont, Calif. / Mission San Jose) to take down the No. 1 regionally-ranked doubles team of Pomona-Pitzer's Angie Zhou and Marissa Markey. Like in Benchetrit and Patel's match, Gerung and Arora also battled to a lengthy tiebreaker, ultimately prevailing by a 12-10 score for a monumental victory and a doubles point for Caltech.
Similar to the doubles matches, singles was just as tightly-contested. Though the Sagehens got off to a hot start, quickly racking up three singles match wins, the Beavers fought back just as hard in the remaining matches. As Pomona-Pitzer sat one match away from the team win, Patel struck back, delivering a convincing 6-3 first set and a 6-2 second set to keep the Beavers afloat. Following suit was Hayes, who pulled through in the first set with a 7-5 score, and found her groove in the second to claim a 6-3 victory.
The dual match came down to Court 5 for the decision. Arora initially took charge, winning the first set 6-4 after her grueling doubles match not long before. The second set was even closer, needing a tiebreaker to settle it. With temperatures rising nearly three hours after the teams started, Arora's rival claimed the second set by a 7-4 tiebreak, and ultimately won the match with a 6-0 third set.
Despite the final score, the close result highlighted outstanding efforts by a taltented Caltech squad that looks to extend its rise in the regional and national rankings.
Next Friday, April 11, Head Coach
Nyssa Peele and the Beavers will venture over to Orange, Calif. to take on #31 Chapman University.
