THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -A split double header for the Cal Lutheran men's tennis team started on a high note as the Kingsmen earned their first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) victory of the season with a 6-3 win over Occidental. In the afternoon, CLU returned to campus to host UC Santa Cruz, falling by a 6-2 margin in a rain shortened affair.

In the morning at Scholl Canyon, the teams started with singles play, splitting the sets to go into doubles tied up 3-3. Cal Lutheran then swept past Oxy in doubles for the win.

The three individual points against the Tigers came from Ian Slater at No. 2, with a 7-6, 6-0 win over Eric Kazangian, Gio Valdez over Avery Howard at No. 4 by scores of 6-2, 6-1, and at No. 5 where Jesse Knight took down Bryson Lee in a third set tiebreaker, 10-4, for a 4-6, 6-4, 1-0 win.

Once doubles action got underway, Slater and Knight cruised to an 8-1 win while both Moises Cardenas and Fergus Scott and Valdez and Oliver Thornton won by scores of 8-2.

Although Cardenas was defeated in singles action for the first time of the year in the morning and went down one set to none, he bounced back to win his singles match against Max Littlejohn 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 for the lone point of the day from CLU individual players. The second team point came at No. 2 doubles where Knight and Slater took down AJ Flora and Adrian Sirovica 9-7. The No. 1 team of Cardenas and Scott nearly stole another point, but fell 9-8 (7-0) and the No. 3 match was close as well with the duo of Valdez and Thornton falling 8-6.

Cal Lutheran (4-3, 1-1 SCIAC) returns to competition on Monday, March 2 when the Kingsmen welcome the University of Mary Washington (Va.) to the Poulson Tennis Center for a non-conference match beginning at 2:00 p.m.

Results: UCSC 6, CLU 2
Results: CLU 6, OXY 3
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