The No. 17 University of Redlands men's tennis team took to the courts on Saturday in Claremont, facing off against the No. 3 Pomona-Pitzer Colleges Sagehens in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) showdown. With the overall match score tied at four apiece, the Bulldogs looked to senior Patrick Lipscomb (Irvine, CA) to clinch the 5-4 upset-win by prevailing in a third-set tiebreak at No. 1 singles.
Redlands grabbed the first point of the day with an 8-6 victory by the No. 3 doubles duo of sophomore Jake Ly (Torrance, CA) and freshman Joey Dulle (St. Louis, MO).
But Pomona-Pitzer answered with wins of its own in the remaining matches, earning a slight 2-1 lead through the doubles.
The Bulldogs needed to win four out of the six singles matches to pull out the upset and that is exactly what they proceeded to do.
First, Dulle captured a 6-1, 6-4 victory at the No. 5 slot, but the Sagehens responded with a two-set win at No. 6.
Down by a team score of 2-3, Redlands continued to pursue its uphill battle with determination, as senior Nick Cummins (Rancho Mirage, CA) took down his No. 2 foe, 6-3, 6-4. With a 7-5, 6-1 triumph at No. 3, sophomore Parker Wilson (Carlsbad, CA) put the Bulldogs up for the first time since the initial doubles win.
However, Pomona-Pitzer evened the count at four apiece with a hard-fought win at the No. 4 slot, forcing the deciding point to come down to the top singles match.
After splitting the opening two sets, Lipscomb moved onto an incredibly tight third set, which eventually went to a tiebreak. With tenacity and heart, he nabbed the exciting victory by a score of 7-3 in the tiebreak, resulting in Redlands' upset-win over the third-ranked men's tennis team in the country.
Redlands (14-7, 5-1 SCIAC) wraps up the dual-match portion of the conference schedule on Friday, April 17, when it hosts Whittier College on Verdieck Courts for Senior Day at 1 p.m.
