Cal Poly Men’s Tennis returned home this past weekend to host Santa Clara and Gonzaga on Saturday, Feb. 8, and Sunday, Feb. 9, at the Ronca Tennis Center.
The Mustangs (2-3) were dominated by the Broncos on Saturday in a 6-1 final before bouncing back with a 4-1 win over the Bulldogs.
Struggling on Saturday against Santa Clara
Cal Poly Men’s Tennis fell short on Saturday, losing a close battle against Santa Clara 6-1.
The Mustangs kept the competition close again but fell back into the same roadblock as they did in Denver. Three singles matches went down to the third set, and the doubles point was closely contested, but Santa Clara came out on top in the close matchups.
Senior Bastiaan Weststrate continued his run at No. 2 singles, improving to 3-1 on the year with a strong win, going 6-0, 6-4 in straight sets.
Weststrate’s winning streak also showed up in the doubles matches, and he has been clinical in matches following his only loss two weekends ago against the University of Denver.
He and freshman John Cross won their doubles match 6-1 at line No. 2, but Santa Clara clinched the point by taking victories at line No. 1 and 3.
Three singles matches went to three sets, keeping the overall point total close late into the afternoon.
Sophomore Raz Haviv nearly took the match at line No. 1, falling just short in a 4-6, 7-5, 3-6 thriller.
Cross kept things close at line No. 4 in his second match of the day but faltered in the third set. Cross has been able to find success throughout the year in doubles, going 2-1 overall, but he has come up just short when it comes to singles and is 1-4 after this match.
Sophomore Sean Kamyshev started off strong at line No. 3, taking the first set 7-5, but the last two sets went the way of Santa Clara’s Lukas Maskow.
Bounceback win over the Bulldogs
The Mustangs closed out their weekend home stand against Gonzaga University in dominant fashion.
The Mustangs took down the Bulldogs 4-1 at home in San Luis Obispo at the Rona Tennis Center.
Cal Poly started the Sunday morning clash by winning two out of their three doubles matches to take the first point of the day.
Doubles pairs of Weststrate and Cross and sophomore Sean Ferguson and junior Aaron Eliscu each won their doubles matches and only allowed a combined four games total against the Bulldogs in doubles play.
After taking the doubles point, the Mustangs moved into singles and continued a strong performance against Gonzaga.
Three of the four singles matches went in favor of Cal Poly, giving them three more points toward their victory.
Kamyshev, Toroman, and Weststrate all won in straight sets during singles play.
Gonzaga was able to get one singles point to avoid the sweep, but the Mustangs still prevailed and came out strong in their Sunday competition.
Looking ahead, the Mustangs travel down south this weekend to face Loyola Marymount University this Friday, Feb. 14, and the University of Utah on Saturday, Feb. 15 matches will take place in Los Angeles.
