CLAREMONT, Calif. - At the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championships over the weekend, the Cal Lutheran men's tennis team claimed a seventh place finish after bouncing back to defeat Occidental on Sunday after falling to Pomona-Pitzer and Chapman.
PP def. CLU 9-0
On the opening day of the championships, the Kingsmen ran up against No. 10 Pomona-Pitzer and fell 9-0 on Friday. In the opening doubles action, Gio Valdez and partner Jesper Lunding-Johansson fell 8-2 at the hands of the No. 2 ranked doubles team in the West Region, Graham Maassen and Spencer Simonides, while Dara Kashani and Michael Sulahian fell 8-1 at court No. 3. At No. 2, Chris Hartman and Lucas Tilly battled, but came up just short in an 8-7 loss.
In singles competition, all six Kingsmen were defeated in straight sets. Valdez nearly forced a third set at No. 1 against Maassen but eventually fell 6-3, 7-5. Kashani won four games in the second set against Jonathan Kim while Tilly won four games apiece in both of his sets.
CU def. CLU 5-1
On Saturday, the Kingsmen faced off against the No. 6 seed in Chapman and fell 5-1. Hartman and Tilly pulled through for the only point of the match for CLU, taking down Sam Mitteldorf and Matthew Mead, 10-8, at No. 2 doubles. The pairings at No. 1 and No. 3 for the Violet and Gold both fell by a score of 8-4.
In single action, CLU was defeated in straight sets in the three completed matches while Valdez was locked up 6-6 at No. 1 before the match was called.
CLU def. OXY 5-0
On the third and final day of the SCIAC Championships, the Kingsmen ended the season on a high note with a 5-0 sweep over Occidental. Valdez and Lunding-Johansson won a tense match at No. 1 doubles, 9-7, after taking the final two games to put CLU up 3-0 early on. The pairings of Kashani and Sulahian along with Hartman and Tilly won their matches by scores of 8-1 and 8-5, respectively.
In the two completed singles matches, Hartman and Sulahian each swept past their opponents 6-0, 6-0.
Cal Lutheran concludes the season with a 4-15, 3-6 SCIAC record and will graduate four seniors in Hartman, Lunding-Johansson, Bradley Lwin and Valdez.
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