REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Tennis team took part in their final regular season home match Friday afternoon beating Whittier College 7-2 at the Verdieck Tennis Courts.
Redlands who posted a strong showing at the Ojai Championships this past weekend carried the momentum over into a solid showing against the Poets sweeping doubles and then taking four of six singles matches. They are now 9-8, 3-3 SCIAC and are currently in a tie for 4th Place in the conference standings needing a win tomorrow and an Occidental loss to keep their SCIAC Tournament hopes alive.
Doubles proved the difference with the Bulldogs taking the sweep, but being pushed though at all three spots. Josh Nelson (Montrose, NY) and Donovan Lilov (San Diego, CA) teamed up at No. 3 to win 8-6, Thomas Reznik (Belmont, CA) and Andrew Yip (Honolulu, HI) also found themselves winning with the exact same score 8-6 at No. 2 and Stefan Hester (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA) and Jack Mattox (Mercer Island, WA) needed a breaker at the top spot to clinch the sweep winning 8-7 (5).
In singles Reznik cruised to the 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 6 grabbing the fourth point on the day and senior Yip would clinch the win at No. 3 going 6-4, 6-0. The momentum carried over at No. 5 from Nelson who would take a break in the opening set 6-3 before rolling 6-1 in the second. Lilov followed at No. 4 grabbing a break in set frame to collect the seventh point for the Maroon and Grey 6-4, 6-3.
The two big matches came at the top with Hester and Mattox both taking on freshmen and both finding themselves down a set early. Hester was broken once in the opening frame at 6-3, but was able to get it right back in the second 6-2 forcing a breaker. But the extra set would go to the Poets as Spencer Cinco would pull out the 10-8 win.
Mattox was the last match on at No. 2 coming from 6-2 down to force a third set breaker after winning the second set 6-4. But he wasn't able to keep the momentum falling 10-3 to Kieran Carroll.
Redlands has their final regular season match of 2022 tomorrow, Saturday, April 30 when they travel to take on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps beginning at 10:00am.
Coach's Thoughts
"It was the last home match of 2022, so there were a lot of emotions. But the players handled them and came out with a strong doubles performance, which set the tone early. Whittier is a talented young team and they competed today, but our players have been putting in the work and I am extremely proud of their work ethic."
Coach's Shoutout
"The seniors stepped up big today and helped secure this conference win. A shout out to Andrew Yip and Thomas Reznik who were unable to compete at Ojai due to Commencement, but were training hard each day we were gone in order to prepare for this weekend."