PASADENA, Calif. - The Cal Lutheran men's tennis team won its seventh straight season opener Saturday afternoon when it took down fellow Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) foe Occidental 8-1.
The Kingsmen got off to a less than advantageous start when the No. 1 doubles team of Moises Cardenas and Fergus Scott fell to Josh Dancu and Avery Howard 8-1. Undeterred, Cal Lutheran salvaged the doubles portion of the match when the No. 2 duo of Alex Nichols and Connor Treacy routed Kevin Siebs and Jack Streeter 8-0 and Ian Slater and Jesse Knight won the No. 3 game 8-5.
Cal Lutheran went 5-0 in the singles portion with Cardenas taking the No. 1 match 6-0, 6-2 over Dancu. Nichols defeated Siebs in the No. 2 game 6-3, 6-0 and Treacy defeated Howard in back-to-back 6-1 sets.
Slater was leading 4-2 before his opponent Trevor Brown had to retire due to injury. Sean Handley got Cal Lutheran its seventh point of the match with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over David Cotton.
Scott had the toughest singles match of the day, going three sets with Eric Kanzangian. The freshman dropped the first set 7-5 but rallied to take the second 6-3. The two would need a third-set tie-breaker to settle the match before Scott would prevail a 10-8 winner.
The Kingsmen will open its home schedule when it hosts Westmont on Thursday, Feb. 13. The match at the Poulson Tennis Center is set to get underway at 2:00 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 8 OXY 1
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