No. 1 Men's Tennis Eyes Post-Season with Wins Over Cal Lu and UCR
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team completed an away-and-home doubleheader sweep Saturday, defeating conference foe Cal Lutheran 9-0 in Thousand Oaks, and then returning to Claremont to stop Division I UC Riverside 4-3 in the afternoon. The Stags were playing their third straight Friday-Saturday with three dual matches in a twenty-six hour window. Sophomore Jack Katzman (CMC) continued to impress, winning all four matches he played on Saturday, and going 6-0 over two days. Katzman is now 25-2 in singles play, and 22-6 with three partners in doubles.
The Stags' victory over Cal Lutheran was their 130th consecutive conference win and sixth on the season. In six conference contests, CMS is 18-0 in doubles play. Against Cal Lu, Alfred Simental (HMC) and Jake Williams (HMC) gave the Stags an early lead with an 8-0 win at No. 3., improving their conference record to 3-0. Julian Gordy (CMC) and Nikolai Parodi (CMC) won their sixth straight at No. 1, followed by Katzman and Oscar Burney (CMC), who were 8-3 winners for the sweep at No. 2. In singles against the Kingsmen, junior Matthew Jacobs (CMC) and sophomore Casey Morris (CMC) provided the fourth and clinching fifth victories respectively at No. 6 and No. 5. Jacobs improves to 9-1 in singles dual matches, while Morris is now 14-5.
Returnnig to the Biszantz Family Tennis Center, CMS faced its second Division I opponent of the season in the Big West's UC Riverside. Playing the Division I format of seven point match scoring, no-ad game scoring, and playing service lets, CMS embarked on its most entertaining doubles of the dual match season. With all three doubles sets counting for one match point, CMS was looking to earn its seventh straight doubles sweep and take the one point advantage into the singles. At No. 1, Gordy and Parodi started slowly, trailing 4-0 and 5-2. However, they fought back to break twice and even the match at 5-all, just as Katzman and Robert Liu (CMC) had built a 5-2 advantage at No. 2. UC Riverside then swung the momentum at No. 2 to even the match at 5-all, just as Gordy and Parodi fell short at the top spot. Meanwhile at No. 3, Simental and Williams held a one game 6-5 advantage. As Katzman-Liu closed out a 7-5 win at No. 2, Simental-Williams dropped a 7-6(4) tie-break to give the Highlanders the doubles point.
Trailing 1-0 heading into the singles, CMS came out firing and won five of six first sets. Katzman evened the score at 1-all with his 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 2. Morris at No. 6, and freshman Nic Meister at No. 5 quickly put the Stags up 3-1 with their straight set wins. Meister's two victories on the day improves his singles record to 15-1 overall and 13-0 in dual matches. Up 3-1, the Stags needed one more match win to clinch, and Parodi at No. 1 came through 7-6(1), 6-4 to earn his third straight win and seventh of his last eight.
CMS improves to 26-1 overall and 6-0 in conference. The Stags close out SCIAC play at No. 14 Pomona-Pitzer on Wednesday, April 14 at 6 PM, with the winner claiming the conference regular season title.
#1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (9) vs. Cal Lutheran (0)
April 20, 2019 at Thousand Oaks, CA (Poulson Tennis Courts)
Doubles
1. Julian Gordy / Nikolai Parodi (CMS) def. Yahn Gawrit / Isaiah Volk (CLU) 8-4
2. Jack Katzman / Oscar Burney (CMS) def. Ransom Braaten / Jake Haffner (CLU) 8-2
3. Alfred Simental / Jake Williams (CMS) def. Florent Auteil / Kylel Gillam (CLU) 8-0
Singles
1. Nikolai Parodi (CMS) def. Yahn Gawrit (CLU) 6-3, 6-2
2. Jack Katzman (CMS def. Ransom Braaten (CLU) 6-2, 6-3
3. Julian Gordy (CMS) def. Isaiah Volk (CLU) 6-3, 6-2
4. Nic Meister (CMS) def. Jake Haffner (CLU) 6-0, 6-1
5. Casey Morris (CMS) def. Aaraon Moylan (CLU) 6-0, 6-2
6. Matthew Jacobs (CMS) def. Michael Sulahian (CLU) 6-2, 6-1
Order of completion
Doubles: 3, 1, 2
Singles: 6, 5, 4, 1, 2, 3
#1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (4) vs. UC Riverside (3)
April 20, 2019 at Claremont, CA (Biszantz Family Tennis Center)
Doubles
1. Kyle McCann / Max Cohen (UCR) def. Julian Gordy / Nikolai Parodi (CMS) 7-5
2. Jack Katzman / Robert Liu (CMS) def. Andreas Whelan-Merediz / Anderson Ju 7-5
3. Gilbert Chung / Nabil Abdallah (UCR) def. Alfred Simental / Jake Williams (CMS) 7-6(4)
Singles
1. Nikolai Parodi (CMS) def. Kyle McCann (UCR) 7-6(1), 6-4
2. Jack Katzman (CMS def.Nabil Abdallah (UCR) 6-1, 6-0
3. Gilbert Chung (UCR) def. Julian Gordy (CMS) 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
4. Andreas Whelan-Merediz (UCR) def. Robert Liu (CMS) 6-3, 5-7, (11-9)
5. Nic Meister (CMS) def. Filip Engstrom (UCR) 6-1, 6-4
6. Casey Morris (CMS) def. Anderson Ju (UCR) 6-0, 6-4
Order of completion
Doubles: 1, 2, 3
Singles: 2, 6, 5, 1, 3, 4
