THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Tennis team had their first test on the road Saturday morning when they opened up Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play cruising to the 7-2 victory over Cal Lutheran University.
The Maroon and Grey improve to 6-2, 1-0 SCIAC and continue to look solid in the month of March going 6-1 over their last seven contests.
Redlands took two of three doubles to get ahead early. Jack Mattox (Mercer Island, WA) and Andrew Yip (Honolulu, HI) dominated at No. 2 winning 8-5. CLU though was able to come back and level the match after Stefan Hester (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA) and Thomas Reznik (Belmont, CA) went down 8-5 at the top spot. The decisive second point came at No. 3 from Max Hoffman (Taipei, Taiwan) and Donovan Lilov (San Diego, CA) who pulled out a late break to win 8-6 sending the Bulldogs into singles with a slight advantage.
Josh Nelson (Montrose, NY) extended the lead with a lopsided 6-1, 6-3 win at No. 5 singles. Lilov followed at No. 4 winning 6-1, 6-4 and Mattox would clinch the victory at No. 2 taking it with a break in each set 7-5, 6-4. Yip had a solid come from behind victory for the sixth point at No. 3 trailing 6-4 after the opening set, before roaring back to take the next two 6-2, 6-3. Hester faced a tough opponent in Lassangoye at the top spot and despite holding a 6-3 lead, was unable to hold that momentum falling 7-6 (2), 6-2.
The final point on the morning came from Hoffman at No. 6 who put together another come from behind victory for the Maroon and Grey. After trailing 6-4 was able to fight his way back to win 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Redlands returns to the courts for a non-conference match-up with George Fox University beginning at 3:00pm on Tuesday, March 22.
Coach's Thoughts
"Our guys deserve a lot of credit. Today was their third match in four days and this was an early wake-up call against a tough conference opponent. We started strong with a pair of doubles wins and kept the foot on the gas, racing to a trio of straight set victories. Credit to Andrew and Max for battling from a set down to round out a great start to our SCIAC season."
Coach's Shoutout
"Jack Mattox played outstanding today. With lineup changes, he has now been moved up in both singles and doubles and he continues to respond and produce high quality points. He and Andrew came out strong in doubles to secure the first point and then staved off a number of break points in the final game to serve out his singles win, fighting off a tough opponent to pick up his first career SCIAC win, while clinching the match for the Bulldogs."