MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio - On the second day of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Indoor National Championships, the Cal Lutheran men's tennis team took on a familiar foe in Redlands. The Kingsmen led the Bulldogs 4-1 but Redlands reeled off four straight singles victories to defeat CLU 5-4 in the consolation round. Later in the evening, CLU fell 8-1 to Kenyon in the seventh place game.
After Redlands took the No. 3 doubles match-up of Tom Suchodolski and Teddy Burchett against Sean Handley and Jesper Lunding-Johansson 8-2, the Kingsmen regrouped by winning the next two contests. CLU's No. 2 doubles duo of Moises Cardenas and Fergus Scott defeated Nick Cummins and Teddy Jones 8-6 and then the Kingsmen took the match lead after Alex Nichols and Connor Treacy took down Patrick Lipscomb and Gram Leahy 8-4.
Cal Lutheran then took a commanding three point lead after Cardenas defeated Lipscomb in No. 1 singles 6-4, 6-2 and Scott beat Jones 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the No. 6 match-up.
Unfortunately for the Kingsmen, Redlands would rally as Cummins beat Nichols 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 in the No. 2 pairing and Parker Wilson topped Treacy 6-7, 6-2, 6-1 in the No. 3 slot.
Ian Slater would force a final set tie-breaker in the No. 4 singles game after falling in the first 3-6 but won the second 6-3. However, Suchdolski would hang on with a 6-4 victory in the third set and square the match a 4-4.
In the No. 5 singles pairing, Burchett won the first game 6-4 and Handley took the second 7-5 force a third-set tie-breaker for the match. Burchett would play strong throughout the final set, topping Handley 6-1 and giving Redlands the team victory.
In the seventh place game, Cal Lutheran was turned back by Kenyon with only Scott capturing his No. 6 singles match against Collin Haas 7-6, 6-4.
Cal Lutheran (1-4) will return home to the Poulson Tennis Center on March, 1, for a matchup with Arizona Christian. The doubles portion of the match will begin at 1:00 p.m.
Box Score: UR 5 CLU 4
Box Score: KEN 8 CLU 1
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