Men's Tennis Too Strong for #5 Kingsmen

CMS Men's Tennis used a balanced attack to win two of three doubles and four of six singles, defeating #5 Cal Lutheran 6-3 in a SCIAC battle between two of the nation's best teams. Junior Alex Lane (Claremont, CA [pictured right] led the Stags with wins at #3 doubles and #2 singles.

CMS were first to strike, as the Stags #2 pair Neel Kotrappa (So. - La Verne, CA) and Brandon Wei (Sr. - Lake Oswego, OR) notched their fourteenth win in fifteen matches by an 8-3 margin. Cal Lutheran then evened the match at 1-1 by coming back from a break down at #1 doubles to earn an 8-5 victory. Then Lane and senior captain Robbie Erani (New York, NY) put the Stags up at the break with an 8-5 victory at #3 doubles.

Both Lane and Erani used the momentum from their doubles win to get out to early one-set leads at #2 and #3 singles respectively, while freshmen Nik Marino (San Diego, CA) and Cameron Bernhardt (San Diego, CA) started slowly but toughed out 7-5 first sets at #4 and #5. Cal Lu evened the match at 2-2 with a straight set win at #1 singles, but CMS countered with Alex Johnson's (Jr. - Thousand Oaks, CA) sixth straight win, and his second at the #6 position. Up 3-2 in matches, CMS got straight set wins from Bernhardt at #5 and then Marino at #4 to clinch the victory. Lane closed out his two set win by breaking at 5-6 in the second set to put CMS up 6-2, before Cal Lu erased a 3-0 deficit in the third set to make the final score 6-3.

CMS is now 5-0 in conference and travels to #14 Redlands for a 4:00 PM match on Saturday. The Stags can close out the SCIAC regular season and earn the top seed in the conference tournament with a win on Saturday.

#6 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (6) vs. #5 Cal Lutheran (3)
April 20, 2012 at Claremont, CA (Biszantz Family Tennis Center)

Doubles
1. Nicholas Ballou / Ray Worley (Cal Lu) def. Warren Wood / Nik Marino (CMS) 8-5
2. Neel Kotrappa / Brandon Wei (CMS) def. Justin Wilson / Connor Treacy (Cal Lu) 8-3
3. Robbie Erani / Alex Lane (CMS) def. Thomas Millet / Marcelo Sousa (Cal Lu) 8-5

Singles
1. Nicholas Ballou (Cal Lu) def. Warren Wood (CMS) 6-1, 6-1
2. Alex Lane (CMS) def. Justin Wilson (Cal Lu) 6-3, 7-5
3. Ray Worley (Cal Lu) def. Robbie Erani (CMS) 3-6, 6-0, 6-3
4. Nik Marino (CMS) def. Connor Treacy (Cal Lu) 7-5, 6-2
5. Cameron Bernhardt (CMS) def. Thomas Millet (Cal Lu) 7-5, 6-0
6. Alex Johnson (CMS) def. Marcelo Sousa (Cal Lu) 6-3, 6-2

Order of completion
Doubles: 2, 1, 3
Singles: 1, 6, 5, 4, 2, 3