The Mustangs took down UC Riverside 6-1 in a midweek matchup, continuing their late season surge before the Big West Championships.
Cal Poly (8-10, 2-2 Big West) had no issues against the Highlanders, taking the lead early in the afternoon and never looking back. The teams decided to play out each match, giving Cal Poly’s home fans a show on all six courts late into Tuesday afternoon.
Doubles remains a strong point for Cal Poly late in the season, with wins at lines No. 1 and No. 3 clinching the Mustangs fifth doubles point across their last six matches.
The run of good form in doubles closely matches the start of senior Bastiaan Weststrate and sophomore Raz Haviv’s partnership at line No. 1. The pair are 3-1 together this season, consistently putting in work at the top doubles spot.
“From the first match against Boise, we’ve played amazing tennis,” Weststrate said. “I fire up, he fires up, and I feel like the chemistry is extremely high on the court.”
As Cal Poly’s lone senior this year, the matchup against UC Riverside was Weststrate’s last home match as a Mustang.
During his career at Cal Poly, Weststrate has won three combined First and Second Team All-Big West awards in doubles. He has a 38-22 record in doubles across the last four years, highlighted by a 14-3 record last year.
Speaking on Weststrate’s career, Head Coach Nick Carless described his doubles prowess as one of the best Cal Poly’s program has seen.
“He’s been a rock for us his entire career,” Carless said. “This year, I’ve asked him to play with some different partners, and he’s always willing.”
Weststrate and Haviv took a 6-3 victory, with their success quickly matched by junior Aaron Eliscu and sophomore Wian Roothman.
Eliscu and Roothman rolled to a 6-2 win at line No. 3, moving to 4-2 as a pairing this season.
With the doubles point secured, Haviv wasted no time continuing his momentum in singles. His 6-3, 6-1 victory at line No.1 was the first singles match to finish, one of three straight set victories for the Mustangs.
Freshman John Cross also cruised to a straight set victory at line No. 3, shutting down his opponent in a dominant 6-1, 6-2 display. Cross is now 7-7 in singles going into the final three matches of the season.
“We had just a great performance from Raz and Cross,” Carless said. “Those guys winning so convincingly allowed us to get the three points pretty quickly, and then from there, it was able to be a relatively comfortable match.”
Sophomore Sean Kamyshev secured the overall match victory with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 win at line No. 4, where he is 4-3 on the season.
Freshman Jack McGary also took down line No. 5 in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6. McGary is 6-6 overall this season, his .500 singles win percentage matching the best on the team.
At line No. 6, Eliscu came back to finish out the singles victories with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 match for his second victory of the day. Eliscu is 9-9 this season in doubles and 3-3 in singles, his even overall record setting a consistent standard for the rest of the team.
The overall sweep came down to a marathon match from Weststrate at line No. 2. Weststrate took the first set 6-3 before dropping the second 7-5. The match came down to a final set super tiebreak, with the first player to win by two at 10 points taking the victory.
Weststrate went back-and-forth with UC Riverside’s Aarav Sane, but he ultimately fell in a 15-13 tiebreak.
Weststrate and the team will have a chance to continue their run of form in three upcoming road matchups.
Cal Poly first travels to Stockton to face No. 49 ranked Pacific University on Thursday, April 10. After the tough matchup, the team’s final two Big West matchups against UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara will finish out the season.
UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis are currently ranked second and third respectively in the Big West.
Despite the tough upcoming schedule, the team is confident.
“I think we have a chance against every team,” Haviv said. “We played Boise or Irvine, both ranking in the 30s, 40s, and we’re not far off. We need to believe in ourselves, and I think we can do a big surprise in the next coming matches.”
