No. 18 Redlands Tops No. 22 Pomona-Pitzer, Comes up
Short against Vanguard
After honoring seniors Jeff Hammond (Mercer Island, WA), Matt
Liebman (Westport, CT) and Daniel Adachi (Honolulu, HI) in a short
pre-match presentation, the No. 18 University of Redlands men's
tennis team captured an important Southern California
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) victory over No. 22
Pomona-Pitzer Colleges by a score of 6-3.
This win also marks Head Coach Geoff Roche's 200th
career victory since taking over the helm of the Redlands
men's tennis program in 2000. Roche's teams have won 20 or more
matches in five of his ten seasons so far and have fallen below
.500 only once. He posted his 100th win on Feb. 12, 2005 against
Chapman University.
Redlands kicked off the day by sweeping the doubles matches
against the Sagehens. The No. 3 tandem of freshman Connor Hyde
(Peterborough, NH) and sophomore Lander Jewett (Helena, MT) cruised
to an 8-2 victory to initiate the scoring. Hammond and junior Keven
Wong (Kaneohe, HI) took down their counterparts at No. 2 by a score
of 8-5 and then the top duo of junior Cameron Spearman (Laguna
Niguel, CA) and freshman Anish Nanda (Cerritos, CA) followed suit
with an 8-5 victory of their own.
This momentum carried the Bulldogs to victory as Hammond and
Hyde posted two-set wins at No. 3 and No. 6, respectively, to
clinch the match for Redlands. Hammond provided a 6-1, 6-4
performance while Hyde posted a 6-2, 7-5 win.
After dropping the next three singles matches, Redlands
rebounded with a 5-7, 6-1, 11-9 victory by Nanda at the No. 2 slot
to make it a 6-3 final.
COMPLETE RESULTS
The Maroon and Gray also faced off against NAIA's sixth-ranked
team, Vanguard University, in a non-conference showdown during the
afternoon but suffered a 3-6 loss to the Lions.
Redlands gained the first point of the match when the No. 2
doubles duo of Hammond and Wong came up with an 8-6 victory. The
Lions evened the score with an 8-5 showing at No. 1 before the
Bulldogs took a 2-1 lead with an 8-5 performance by the No. 3 team
of Hyde and Jewett.
However, Vanguard earned the first two points in singles with
wins at No. 2 and No. 3, pulling ahead by a score of 3-2.
Hyde answered with an impressive 6-3, 6-4 victory at the No. 5
slot but this was all that the Bulldogs managed as the Lions took
the final three matches.
COMPLETE RESULTS
With the win over Pomona-Pitzer, Redlands (13-10, 4-2 SCIAC)
solidifies its spot as the No. 3 seed for the SCIAC Championship
Tournament, which begins Friday at 9 a.m. in Claremont. The
pairings will be announced early next week but the Bulldogs most
likely face off against Whittier in the first round.
