THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Cal Lutheran men's and women's tennis faced off against Colorado College in a home double header last Thursday. The Kingsmen began the festivities at 1pm before the Regals played into the night. Neither team was able to secure a victory, with each falling to the Tigers by scores of 5-2.
The Kingsmen sent out the three duos of
Ethan Sherwood/
Loup Sudre,
Jerry Dominguez/
Raphael Simon, and
Frederick Otto/
Andy Ai for the opening doubles matches. Sherwood/Sudre were able to claim a 6-4 win, but Colorado took the other two matches to capture the team doubles point. Dominguez/Simon gave the Tigers a real test, sending their match to a tiebreak, ultimately falling 7-5 in that final set. The Kingsmen would enter singles in an 0-1 deficit.
Four of the six singles matches would go to three sets as an afternoon of extremely competitive tennis was played. Sherwood traded close sets with his opponent before running out of gas in the third, losing 7-5, 5-7, 6-2. Simon lost both sets at the #2 spot.
Sudre fell behind quickly in a lopsided opening set, but he showed tremendous resilience to win his match after long, tightly-contested second and third sets. His match went 1-6, 7-5, 7(7)-6(4).
Ai won his first set but could not secure a second one, losing 6-4, 1-6, 3-6. Jakob Buhler slotted in at the #6 singles spot for the Kingsmen, but fell 6-3, 6-1.
Frederick Otto had a strong showing at the #5 spot despite losing a close opening set. He responded with back-to-back comfortable set wins, taking the match 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.
In the end, it wasn't enough for the Kingsmen as they lost 2-5 and dropped to 3-6 overall on the season. They will host Linfield on Wednesday, March 26 at 5pm in their final non-conference matchup of the spring.
The three duos for the Regals were
Mina Ahmadi/
Carmen Bufkin,
Kylee Limpias/
Maddy Ford, and
Anya Rajan/
Luisa Garcia. Each of the pairings played well to sweep the doubles matches and earn the first team point for Cal Lutheran. Ahmadi/Bufkin and Limpias/Ford each won 6-3, while Rajan/Garcia won 6-4.
The Regals were unable to carry over their hot start to singles, as Bufkin was the only one to win her match. In the #1 spot, she comfortably handled her opponent by a score of 6-0, 6-3. She remains undefeated in singles in 2025.
Rajan, Ford, Garcia, and
Evelyn Oltmans each lost in straight sets to a tough Colorado squad. In the #4 spot, Limpias won a close opening set but ran out of gas, eventually losing 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.
The loss brought the Regals to .500 overall on the season through eight matches. Due to the cancellation of the Linfield match originally scheduled for this week, Cal Lutheran is done with non-conference play. They will continue their season at home against Chapman on Saturday, March 29 at 1pm.
