Cal Poly Men’s Tennis split its weekend matchups with Rice and William & Mary on Friday, March 24 and Saturday, March 25 in Texas.
The Mustangs (4-7) fell to the Owls (10-7) on Friday before snapping their four-game losing streak against the Tribe (6-8) on Saturday.
Friday vs. No. 73 Rice
Cal Poly took on Rice on Friday and had its comeback hopes cut short in the last match, losing 4-3.
The Owls had the Mustangs on the ropes after pulling out the early doubles matches and adding two more singles victories to give them an overall matchpoint.
Cal Poly started to roll after redshirt junior Fernando Fonseca got them on the board with a dominant 6-3, 6-2 win at the fourth line.
The Mustangs needed a rally and had their hopes answered by a retirement at line No. 3, giving redshirt junior Colter Smith a rollover victory.
The rally continued on court five, where sophomore Bastiaan Weststrate was in a battle of his own. Weststrate took a 6-3 first-set advantage but faced some difficulty trying to close out the match, losing the second set to force the match to go the distance.
Weststrate kept pushing and cruised to a third-set win, 6-2, evening the overall matchup to 3-3.
Everything came down to the two toughest competitors on the court, No. 77 junior Noah Berry and Rice’s Trinity Grear.
Berry came away with the first set in a 7-6 (10-8) fashion. However, Grear came back firing in the last two sets and ended up winning the match, sinking the Mustangs’ hopes of a comeback win.
Saturday vs. William & Mary
Cal Poly continued its Texas road trip with a gritty back-and-forth 4-2 victory over William & Mary.
The early matches have continued to give Cal Poly the fits, as the Mustangs dropped the doubles point against the Tribe for the fourth straight match.
At line No. 3, Smith was off the court in a hurry after tearing apart his opponent in a 6-0, 6-3 win to even the score at one apiece.
Shortly after, redshirt junior Joe Leather got in on the winning action on court two, taking the match in two sets, 7-5, 6-2.
Berry showed again why he is nationally ranked by grinding his way to give Cal Poly a 3-2 advantage after his own 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) win at the top singles spot.
Freshman Aaron Eliscu was called into the lineup in a clutch spot, with his match being the potential clincher for the Mustangs.
Eliscu pulled out a 6-4 first set and showed his poise in set two, taking a 7-6 (7-5) crunch-time performance to ice the match and give Cal Poly a much-needed win.
Cal Poly will return to California for a showdown with the University of Pacific Tigers on Wednesday, March 29 at Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center.
