Cal Poly Men’s Tennis completed a weekend sweep against Grand Canyon 7-0 on Friday, March 12 and Gonzaga 4-3 on Sunday, March 14 at Mustang Tennis Complex to start off their five-game home stand.
With the victories, Cal Poly bounced back from a three-game losing run and moved up to 6-7 on the season.
Friday
The Mustangs started off the game against Grand Canyon University (1-10) by winning the doubles point and never let their foot off the pedal.
Cal Poly’s No. 3 pairing of redshirt junior Alex Stater and redshirt sophomore Gary Vardanyan initiated the shutout with a dominant 6-0 win over Grand Canyon’s duo of Freddie Grant and Loic Van Zeggelaar to record their third win together this season.
The Mustangs continued their hot start to the game with their No. 1 duo of redshirt freshman Joe Leather and redshirt junior Roman Shenkiryk getting a 6-2 victory over GCU’s pairing of Valentin Lang and Jiri Novak. Cal Poly’s No. 2 pair of redshirt senior Antione Noel and redshirt junior Andrew Whitehouse clinched the doubles point for their first time together this season with a 6-3 win over Mariano Argote and Justin Cvitanovic.
Cal Poly remained unbeaten in singles play with Leather putting the Mustangs up 2-0 at the No. 4 spot after defeating Jiri Novak in consecutive sets, 6-1 and 6-2 to improve his record to 5-5 on the season.
Freshman Noah Berry then went on to win two straight sets by the score of 6-1 at the No. 2 spot. With the victory, he improved his singles record to 5-4 on the season.
Noel recorded his first singles win of the season at the No. 3 position with sets of 6-2 and 6-4 to extend the Mustangs’ lead to 4-0.
Vardanyan kept the steam going for Cal Poly, winning a back-and-forth first set 7-5 and a 6-2 second set at the No. 5 spot to improve his singles record to 6-5.
At the No. 1 spot, Stater recorded a team-best singles record of 8-3 after winning two hard contested sets at 6-4 each to put the Mustangs up 6-0.
Redshirt freshman Fernando Fonseca secured the 7-0 victory for Cal Poly at the No. 6 spot after winning two consecutive sets of 6-3 in order to improve his singles record to 5-6 this season.
Sunday
Gonzaga (7-1) started the game by defeating Berry at the No. 2 spot with sets of 6-4 and 6-2 to get the first point of game.
Cal Poly evened the score at 1-1 as Fonseca took the win at the No. 6 spot in straight sets (6-4, 6-4). Stater continued his hot weekend streak to put the Mustangs ahead for the first time, winning 6-2 in the first set and 6-4 in the second set at the No. 1 spot. Stater improved his singles record to 9-3 on the season.
However, Gonzaga evened the score at the No. 5 spot, winning both sets against Vardanyan 6-4 and 6-3.
Gonzaga kept its momentum going and pulled away at 3-2 at the No. 3 spot after taking down Noel in two of three sets of 1-6, 6-4, and 7-6.
However, in a hard-fought last match, Cal Poly evened the score once again at 3-3 after Leather won two of three sets 6-3, 2-6, and 7-5.
The teams headed into doubles play to decide the game winner with Cal Poly’s No. 2 duo of Noel and Whitehouse getting the first point after winning 6-4 over Gonzaga’s pair of Matthew Hollingworth and Matthew Perkins.
The Mustangs’ No. 3 pair of Stater and Vardanyan clinched the thrilling 4-3 victory after winning their match 6-3 against Gonzaga’s Oliver Andersson and Pablo Gomez Galvan.
The matchup between Leather and Shenkiryk and Leon Roider and Sasha Trkulja remained unfinished at 4-4.
Cal Poly will continue to defend its home ground for the next three games, receiving New Mexico on Monday, March 15 before Big West play at Mustang Tennis Complex.