CLAREMONT, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Tennis team put together a strong performance over the weekend during the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) West Regional.

16 Bulldogs took part in the three-day event, which included a main draw for doubles and three flights of singles.  Highlighting the weekend was Andrew Yip (Honolulu, HI) and Stefan Hester (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA) who were doubles semi-finalists, Michael Cabacungan (Palm Springs, CA) and Andrew Somerville (Kailua, HI) who were Doubles consolation semi-finalists and Nathan Bernardo (Santa Ana, CA) who won the Flight C Singles consolation bracket.         

Doubles Draw

Yip-Hester, seeded No. 6 had one of the toughest draws to get to the semi-finals.  They opened with a tough match with Sundar/Gonzalgo (Caltech) and needed a breaker to advance as they won 8-7 (7).  On Saturday they returned to faceoff against Lossangoye/Murphy (Cal Lutheran) and again needed a breaker winning 8-7 (5).  They continued with this momentum into the quarterfinals that same day and again were pushed this time by Steinhauser/Lee (Caltech), but were able to pull out the 8-6 victory. 

Sunday morning they matched up with unseeded Comadena/Kelley (Pomona-Pitzer) in the semi-finals and threatened the Sagehen duo, but couldn't keep their run going as they fell 8-6.

Thomas Reznik (Belmont, CA) and Jack Mattox (Mercer Island, WA) were put together by Head Coach Geoff Roche and what a pairing that was as they advanced to the Quarterfinals only to fall to the No. 1 seed.  They needed a breaker to get through the first round upsetting the No. 5 seed in Mardirossian/Hall (UC Santa Cruz) 8-7 (7).  They then went into Saturday taking on Snyder/Patel (Pomona-Pitzer) and cruised to the 8-4 victory before falling 8-4 to the Katzman/Liu (Claremont-M-S).      

Cabacungan-Somerville was another doubles pairing for UR and they ran into a tough test with No. 3 Stark/Madabhushi (Pomona-Pitzer) falling 8-5 in their opening round.  They did though make an impact in the consolation bracket beating two UC Santa Cruz squads of Igna/Jackson (8-7(5)) and Chen/Tjoa (8-7(5)) before falling to the No. 5 seed of Mardirossian/Hall (UC Santa Cruz) 8-6.  

Donovan Lilov (San Diego, CA) and Luke Watson (Bury St. Edmunds, UK) was the last pairing in the doubles and were matched-up with the No. 2 seed Freer/Robinson (Claremont-M-S), but couldn't get any momentum as they fell 8-2.  They then entered the consolation bracket where they would get through Gundakaram/Srinivasan (Caltech) 8-5 before falling in the Quarterfinals to Sundar/Gonzalgo (Caltech) 8-6.   

Flight A Singles

Five Bulldogs competed in the Flight A grouping.  Lilov fell to Nathan Arimilli (Claremont-M-S) 6-4, 6-4, and then entered the consolation bracket where he dropped a straight sets decision to Kyle McCandless (Caltech) 6-2, 6-2. 

Yip got his first action in singles taking on Matthew Feng (Pomona-Pitzer), but was unable to gain any traction as he fell 6-0, 6-1.  He then entered the consolation bracket where he advanced over Andre Mardirossian (UC Santa Cruz) due to injury before falling in three sets to McCandless (Caltech) 2-6, 6-3, 10-6 in the quarterfinals.

Mattox also fell in the opening round 6-2, 6-3 to Michael Hao (Claremont-M-S), but was able to beat Aiden Little (Colorado College) 6-3, 5-7, 10-5 in the consolation bracket before falling 6-2, 6-2 to Matthew O'Connor (Occidental College).    

Reznik had to faceoff against No. 6 Ian Freer (Claremont-M-S) in the first round falling 6-0, 6-1 before being knocked out by Morgan Schilling (Claremont-M-S) 6-4, 6-2.  Hester was the last Bulldog in the first flight and he too had a tough opening round with No. 2 Matthew Robinson (Claremont-M-S) falling 6-3, 6-1.  In the backdraw he advanced over Michael Abagyan (Occidental College) who pulled out due to injury and then had to face Morgan Schilling (Claremont-M-S) falling 6-3, 7-6 (1).    

Flight B Singles

Somerville was the only U of R player in the B Flight.  He opened with Ridley Potter (Occidental), but couldn't advance as he fell 6-4, 6-3.  He then took on Bharathan Sundar (Caltech) in the consolation draw where he forced a third set breaker only to fall 6-2, 4-6, 10-6.  

Flight C Singles

The final 10 Bulldogs competed in the Flight C Draw, highlighted by Bernardo who came in as the No. 5 seed winning five rounds to take home the title.  He cruised through his first three rounds beating Aaron Moylan (Cal Lutheran) 6-2, 6-4, Prayag Ahire (Whittier) 6-1, 6-3, and No. 1 seed John Kim (Caltech) 4-2, Ret (Inj.).  After that he needed three sets to beat Tommy Hays (Chapman) 6-3, 4-6, 10-8 in the Semi-Finals before rolling Julien Sanseverino (UCSC) 6-1, 6-2 in the final.      

Max Hoffman (Taipei, Taiwan) got a quick win in his first round 6-3, 6-1 over Shawn Rothermel (Cal Lutheran), but couldn't get past the Round of 16 falling 6-4, 6-3 to No. 1 John Kim (Caltech).  Leyton Ramos (Honolulu, HI) faced off against freshman Prayag Ahire (Whittier) falling 6-4, 6-0 and then fell 6-1, 6-2 to Aaron Moylan (Cal Lutheran) in the back draw. 

Riley Visaya (Honolulu, HI) opened up his weekend taking on No. 4 Tristan Munteanu (Whittier), but couldn't get anything going as he fell 6-2, 6-1.  He then entered the consolation bracket where he fell to teammate Nathan Butterfield (San Luis Obispo, CA) 6-0, 6-1.  Butterfield entered this match after falling to Christian Anderson (Occidental) 6-1, 6-2 and was able to advance to the Quarterfinals where he fell to teammate JJ Niven (Avila Beach, CA) 6-3, 6-2. 

Niven, a first year pushed Tommy Hays (Chapman) early, but couldn't keep it going as he fell 7-6 (4), 6-1.  He then went on to beat Pim van der Veer (Whittier) 6-4, 6-3 and Butterfield (Redlands) before falling to eventual Flight C Champion Aaron Moylan (Cal Lutheran) 7-5, 6-3 in the Semi-Finals.     

Cabacungan had a strong start to his singles beating Dennis Isak (Occidental) 6-1, 6-1.  He then carried that momentum into a Round of 16 matchup with Julien Sanseverino (UCSC), falling 6-4, 6-3.  Alex Atwell (San Diego, CA) faced off against No. 3 Kameron DeHart (Colorado College) in the main draw falling 6-0, 6-1, but was able to beat Vinicius Torres (Colorado College) 6-4, 6-0 before being forced to retire due to injury in the Semi-Finals to Nick Griffin. 

Watson came into the Flight C Draw as the No. 6 seed, but was upset in the first round by Ryan Murphy (Cal Lutheran) 6-2, 7-5.  He did bounce back though to edge Ahmed Aher (Whittier) 6-4, 5-7, 10-6, but that's as far as he would go falling in a third set breaker 6-4, 3-6, 10-4 to No. 2 seed Hangyu Ai.  

Cameron McDaniel (Laguna Niguel, CA) was the final Bulldog to compete and had a match in the opening round falling in a third set breaker 6-0, 5-7, 10-7 to Andrei Staicu (Caltech).  He then had to faceoff against No. 2 Hangyu Ai in the consolation bracket dropping in a tight match 7-6 (6), 6-4.