CMS Men's Tennis Fights Off Challenge from Caltech to Stay Unbeaten in SCIAC
PASADENA, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team trailed 2-0, but Matthew Robinson and Christian Settles picked up a key tiebreak win in doubles to swing the momentum, and the Stags went on to earn a 6-3 win over Caltech on Friday afternoon.
The win was the eighth in a row for CMS, which improves to 15-4 overall and 5-0 in conference. The Stags have also now won 149 SCIAC-sponsored matches in a row (143 regular season, six postseason) dating back to April 16, 2005. Redlands had the old record of 143, which was set from 1963-76. Caltech falls to 9-5 overall and suffers its first league loss (3-1).
Caltech earned the first two points with an 8-3 win at No. 2 doubles, and an 8-7(3) win at No. 3, where the Beavers' third pair came back from a 7-2 deficit and three breaks of serve. With the Stags trailing 2-0, Robinson needed to hold at 6-7 in order to force a tie-break so that CMS could avert the doubles sweep. Robinson and Settles won the first two points before building a 6-2 lead, and then closed out the tiebreak 7-4.
Needing to win four singles matches, CMS was dominant in five of six first sets, dropping no more than three games in any of the those five positions. Robinson was first to finish at No. 2 with a 6-2, 6-1 win, leveling the score at 2-2. Advik Mareedu quickly followed with a 6-1, 6-0 victory at No. 1 - his 23rd of the season - to give the Stags a 3-2 lead that they wouldn't relinquish. Daniel Blackman was down a service break at 3-2 in the first set, before rattling off ten of the next twelve games at No. 6 to put the Stags within one match of clinching.
Moments later Ian Freer completed an efficient straight set win - his seventh straight - to give the Stags their fifth and decisive point at the No. 3 position. Warren Pham added a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 5, while Dan Wen avoided the singles sweep for Caltech by coming up with a 6-4, 7-5 win at No. 4 to make the final score 6-3.
CMS will be back in action tomorrow for another SCIAC match at Chapman.
#3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (6) vs. #13 Caltech (3)
April 14, 2023 at Pasadena, CA. (Caltech Tennis Courts)
Doubles
- Matthew Robinson/Christian Settles (CMS) def. Ishaan Kannan/Andrew Zabelo (CALTECH) 8-7(4)
- Kyle McCandless/Daniel Wen (CALTECH) def. Ian Freer/Daniel Blackman (CMS) 8-3
- Nathan Zou/Andrei Staicu (CALTECH) def. Advik Mareedu/Warren Pham (CMS) 8-7(3)
Singles
- Advik Mareedu (CMS) def. Kyle McCandless (CALTECH) 6-1, 6-0
- Matthew Robinson (CMS) def. Ishaan Kannan (CALTECH) 6-2, 6-1
- Ian Freer (CMS) def. Andrew Zabelo (CALTECH) 6-3, 6-1
- Daniel Wen (CALTECH) def. Christian Settles (CMS) 6-4, 7-5
- Warren Pham (CMS) def. Victor Li (CALTECH) 6-2, 6-1
- Daniel Blackman (CMS) def. Nathan Zou (CALTECH) 6-3, 6-1
Order of completion
Doubles: 2, 3, 1
Singles: 2, 1, 6, 3, 5, 4