The Cal Poly Men’s Tennis team won their third game in a row after defeating New Mexico 4-3 on Tuesday, March 16 at Mustang Tennis Complex.
After starting their season 4-7, the Mustangs now improve their record to 7-7 before heading into Big West play.
In doubles, Cal Poly’s No. 3 pairing of sophomore Gary Vardanyan and junior Alex Stater defeated New Mexico’s (2-6) Alex Maggs and Stepan Holis. The Mustangs clinched the doubles point after the No. 1 pairing of redshirt freshman Joe Leather and redshirt junior Roman Shenkiryk defeated Raul Dobai and Jake Trondson 6-4.
After taking the 1-0 lead, the Mustangs extended their lead to 3-0 early in the singles matches.
At the No. 5 spot, Cal Poly freshman Fernando Fonseca defeated Rafael Abdulsalam in consecutive sets (7-6, 6-4) which earned the Mustangs’ first singles point. Cal Poly then took a 3-0 advantage after Leather defeated Sergio Molina in three sets, 6-2, 5-7 and 6-1 at the No. 4 position.
However, the Lobos cut Cal Poly’s lead to 3-2 after two singles wins. At the No. 3 spot, senior Antoine Noel won the first set 6-3 against Holis. However, Holis defeated Noel in the last two sets, 6-2 and 6-3, to give the Lobos their first point of the day.
The No. 6 position also went to three sets, but Trondson ended up defeating freshman Carter Crookston with a match score of 6-3, 1-6 and 6-4 to cut Cal Poly’s lead to 3-2.
The Mustangs ended up clinching the victory at the No. 1 spot when Stater defeated Dobai in a hard fought three-set match. After Dobai took the first set 6-4, Stater secured the match victory after defeating Dobai 6-2 in the second set and 6-4 in the last set.
Cal Poly’s victory on Tuesday concludes their non-conference schedule and the Mustangs will kick off conference play against the University of Hawaii on Friday, March 26 at noon in Mustang Tennis Complex.