REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Tennis team returns to the SCIAC Tournament after a brief hiatus in 2022. The Bulldogs clinched the No. 3 seed and will travel to take on No. 2 Caltech on Friday, April 28 beginning at 6:00pm.
Both Redlands and Caltech finished with a 5-2 SCIAC record, though Caltech earned the higher seed and home-court advantage by defeating the Bulldogs 5-4 earlier this season.
The last time Redlands was in the SCIAC Tournament was back in 2019, under former Head Coach Geoff Roche where the team lost in the Semi-Finals. Since the tournament originated back in 2018 the Maroon and Grey have qualified three times.
Redlands this season posted a 10-7, 5-2 SCIAC record with the conference victories coming against Pomona-Pitzer, Chapman University, Occidental College, Cal Lutheran University and Whittier College. In the match-up with the Beavers the Bulldogs lost 5-4 and were forced to climb out of a 3-0 deficit after doubles. In singles competition the U of R took four of six matches creating some pushback with wins coming from Nils Plutat (Sauerlach, Bavaria, Germany), Stefan Hester (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA), Bryce Keim (Spartanburg, S.C.), and Donovan Lilov (San Diego, CA).
The winner of the semifinal matchup will face the winner of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer for the SCIAC title. The final will be held Saturday, Apr. 29 with the time to be announced later.
University of Redlands
The Bulldogs, who are ranked No. 35 in the NCAA Division III National Rankings and No. 8 in the West Region are led by All-SCIAC performers Plutat (1st Team), Keim (2nd Team) and Hester (2nd Team).
Plutat, who is ranked No. 10 in singles within the West Region has been playing at the top spot in both singles and doubles. He compiled a 9-6 record in singles, which included a 3-4 mark in SCIAC competition, with wins coming against Caltech (Kyle McCandless), Whittier (Prayag Ahire), and Cal Lutheran (Darvel Lossangoye). He then teamed up with Keim to go 13-4 on the year in doubles, winning their last three, going 9-1 across their last ten matches and posting a 6-1 record in SCIAC, proving to be one of the best teams in the country. They currently are ranked No. 4 in the West Region, the second highest ranked SCIAC team.
On the year Keim played both No. 2 and No. 3 singles compiling a 10-7 record, while going 5-2 in SCIAC with wins over Cal Lutheran (Aaron Moylan), Whittier (Spencer Cinco), Caltech (Andrew Zabelo), Chapman (Danny Marsh), and Occidental (Ace Andres).
Hester has been consistent on the season playing No. 2 singles and No. 2 doubles and it has paid off as he comes in ranked No. 22 in the West Region. He compiled an 8-6 record in singles, while going 3-2 in SCIAC competition, which included wins over Caltech (No. 21 Ishaan Kannan), Chapman (Tommy Hays), and the biggest win coming in the clinch over then No. 24 Pomona-Pitzer (No. 24 Kush Patel).
In doubles he was paired up with Jack Mattox (Mercer Island, WA) and the duo finished the year 8-6 with a 4-1 mark in SCIAC. They went 7-3 across their last ten and are currently riding a three-match winning streak.
Mattox will be another player to watch as the sophomore carries a 10-6 mark in singles primarily playing at No. 4. On the year he is perfect at No. 3 at 3-0 and has gone 7-2 over his last ten matches along with riding a three match winning streak heading into the weekend. Lilov, who movedinto the starting lineup at No. 5 halfway through the season has come on strong as of late with seven wins on the season and has won his last two. The depth for the Maroon and Grey will come at No. 6 where Head Coach Pete Yellico has options, where he can put in first-years Luca Davidorf (Atlanta, GA), Josh Davydov (Bellevue, WA), Omar Khayat (Irvine, CA), or Tyler Pyle (Lake Oswego, OR). The four have combined for 11 wins on the year with Davydov posting five wins, Khayat with three and Davidorf two.
Caltech
It has been a historic season for the Beavers, who sport an 11-6 overall record, a No. 15 national ranking and No. 3 regional ranking among NCAA Division III institutions.
A large part of that success has come from Kyle McCandless who played in the first singles spot all season. He is ranked No. 11 in the region and has earned seven singles wins. In doubles, McCandless has paired up with Daniel Wen all season, where they've picked up ten wins -- one against a regionally-ranked team – and a 5-2 conference record.
Not far behind McCandless in the regional singles rankings is Ishaan Kannan who has earned the No. 21 spot in the West. Kannan has earned six wins in the second singles spot this year in addition to eight wins in doubles action, most of which have come with Andrew Zabelo.
Zabelo has competed in the third spot for most of this season and has earned nine wins thus far in 2023, three coming within SCIAC. Wen has totaled 13 wins in solo play this year, putting him tied for first all-time in the Caltech record books for most singles wins in one season. He enters Friday's contest on a nine-match win streak with a perfect 7-0 record in conference action.
Wen has primarily competed in the fourth spot with one victory coming on Court 3. Victor Li has notched 11 wins this year with a 4-2 conference record, primarily in the fifth spot, while Rishi Gundakaram has six wins – most of them coming in the sixth spot.
Also grabbing wins this year was Andrei Staicu and Nathan Zou.
Zou and Gundakaram are 4-1 in doubles play versus SCIAC pairs; Zou sports a 6-1 record after picking up two wins with Staicu.
For those unable to cheer on the Bulldogs in person this Friday, April 28 Courts 1 through 4 will be streamed live via Track.Tennis, with complete live scores available at GoCaltech.com/tennisscores.