THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Cal Lutheran men's tennis defeated the Whittier Poets on Saturday morning less than 18 hours after beating Occidental on Friday evening. Despite the short rest, the Kingsmen returned home and carried their momentum into a 6-1 victory.
Cal Lutheran sent out the same doubles pairings as the night prior, with
Ethan Sherwood/
Loup Sudre in the #1 spot,
Raphael Simon/
Maciej Gawronski in the #2 spot, and
Frederick Otto/
Andy Ai in the #3 spot.
Simon/Gawronski and Otto/Ai both pulled out 6-4 victories to claim the doubles team point for the Kingsmen. After the wins, Simon/Gawronski are now 3-1 as partners this spring, and Otto/Ai have won three consecutive matches as a duo.
Sherwood/Sudre competed in a tight match, eventually winning the tiebreak 7-3 to take the set and give Cal Lutheran two-straight doubles sweeps. The Kingsmen would enter the singles matches up 1-0 over Whittier.
Sherwood dominated the #1 spot, quickly defeating his opponent 6-0, 6-1. He has won three of his last four singles matches. Simon followed suit in the #2 spot with a 7-5, 6-0 victory for his fourth singles win in a row and fifth in his last six matches.
With the Kingsmen already up 3-0 as a team, Sudre clinched the match in the #3 spot with a 6-4, 6-4 dub, marking his first conference singles win of 2025. Cal Lutheran secured a match victory in the minimum of four matches completed.
In the #6 spot,
Jake Anderson lost 7-5, 6-3. Ai got the Kingsmen another win in the #4 spot, defeating his opponent 6-4, 6-3. Ai has won two in a row and three of his last four singles matches.
The only match to go three sets, Otto outlasted his opponent in the #5 spot in a tiebreak. The final score was 2-6, 6-4, 7(7)-6(4) as Otto claimed his first SCIAC singles win of the season.
With the victory, Cal Lutheran moves to 6-7 overall and up to .500 SCIAC with a 2-2 record. On Tuesday, the Kingsmen will face their stiffest test of the year, as the #1 team in the country, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, will visit Poulson in Cal Lutheran's final home match of the season.
It will be a special day for the soon-to-be graduates, as the match will serve as senior day. Come out and support on Tuesday, April 8 at 4pm!
