After a strong 3-1 road trip, the No. 38 Cal Poly Women’s Tennis returned to the Ronca Tennis Center and Comerford Pavillion to host the Loyola Marymount Lions on Monday, March 10.
Although the Lions’ (2-7) record is not appealing, their team is strong. Out of the seven losses, four have been to nationally ranked programs, including UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, the University of Arizona, and Sacramento State.
The Mustangs (10-3, 3-1 Big West) were coming into this matchup in unfamiliar territory, looking to avenge a loss against Long Beach State, the first in over a month.
The team is off to its best start since the 2021 COVID season, where Cal Poly began the year 11-2.
Starting the day with some doubles action, Head Coach Ellie Edles Williams made a switch at line No. 1 for the unstoppable pairing of senior Peyton Dunkle and redshirt sophomore Amy Leather.
The duo has started the season with a blistering 6-1 before this match.
The pairing started off slow, falling down 5-1 quickly, but they made it close, eventually going down 6-4.
Filling in at doubles line No. 2 would be the duo of junior Kennedy Buntrock and senior Romane Mosse.
They looked solid on the afternoon, cruising to an easy 6-2 victory over their opponents.
The Mustangs could not capitalize on court No. 3 and surrendered the early doubles point to LMU.
Singles play has shined bright for Cal Poly all year long and this match proved no different, as you hear on-court shouts of “Let’s Go Stangs” and “Break on Court, 2 Poly”.
The overall score was quickly evened at 1-1 after the freshman phenom of Jessica MacCallum trounced her opponent 6-0, 6-1 on court No. 5.
MacCallum is the first Mustang to reach 10 wins in the season, and she has done so with incredible efficiency, 10-3 in the year.
Extending Cal Poly’s lead on court No. 2 where Dunkle was putting on a singles show.
The lefty speedster was tracking down every ball, wearing her opponent down then cracking one of her patented inside-out forehands, with the fans erupting on the deck to improve to 7-2 this year.
Buntrock was on court No. 1 fighting multiple battles, both with her opponent and with herself. After a recent win streak, she was having trouble finding her backhand. The Las Vegas native found herself forced to come back from large deficits in both sets and fell 6-1, 6-1.
With LMU evening the score again, tension began to rise. The Mustangs would need to capture 2-3 of the remaining matches to defend their home and come out with a win.
Checking in on line No. 6, we see that the laser-focused sophomore Natalie Lynch is in a tightly contested contest.
Lynch, playing to the tunes of her teammates, Eliza Bates and Sarah MacCallum, and shouting encouragement, pulled out a fantastic clutch win.
The sophomore took the first set 6-4, and in the second set, Lynch was serving at 5-4 to close out the match but lost her serve.
At 5-5, Lynch broke back to take a 6-5 lead. This time, she got the serve to go and finished out her opponent 6-4, 7-5. She pushed her record to 8-3 on the season.
Mustangs now lead 3-2, and the eyes of the nervous fans move to the court next door, No. 4.
Playing at line No. 4 junior Sasha Ozerets, is in familiar territory, a close third set.
Ozerets propelled to a quick start taking the first set, 6-3. Her opponent made a late set surge in the second set and evened things with a 6-4 victory. With a set-a-piece Ozerets had the chance to clinch for Cal Poly.
She stepped up in a huge way that fans and teammates are accustomed to.
Ozerets took the third set convincingly 6-2. Her record extends to 9-3 second on the team in wins.
Still grinding on court No. 3 would be Mosse, in her own third set.
Moose opened her match with a, 7-6, (7-5) first-set tiebreaker. But dropped the second set 6-4, setting the tone for a grueling third-set battle.
The eyes now shift to Mosse and her fighter mentality, she slipped into a quick 4-1 hole and was never able to fully recover.
Mosse would drop the third set, 6-3. And the Mustangs would finish with a 4-3 victory.
Cal Poly responded well in a tough environment and will use this win to look forward to the weekend homestand, which includes taking on Santa Clara on Saturday, March 15 at noon and CSU Northridge on Sunday, March 16 at noon.