Cal Poly Women’s Tennis competed in the inaugural Universal Tennis NIT Championship Tournament on Wednesday, May 17 and Saturday, May 20 at the Peachtree Tennis Center in Georgia.
The Mustangs faced off against a pair of ranked opponents in Colorado and Wyoming and walked away winless in the program’s first postseason appearance.
Quarterfinals vs. No. 62 Colorado
In the quarterfinals matchup with Colorado, Cal Poly fell 4-1 after close battles at every court.
The match was originally slated to be played outdoors, but it was pushed to the inside pavilion due to intense thunderstorms.
When the Mustangs finally took the court, they started off strong with an opportunity to take the doubles point after graduate Kimberley Bhunu and freshman Kennedy Buntrock picked up a 6-2 win at line No. 2. However, the pairing lost the deciding match to give the point to Colorado.
Bhunu then bounced back by recording the first postseason singles victory in program history at the No. 1 court, winning 7-5, 6-2.
Bhunu’s win was Cal Poly’s lone victory, as the remaining singles matches went Colorado’s way to finish off the 4-1 victory.
Consolation vs. No. 70 Wyoming
The Mustangs’ season came to a close following a 5-2 loss to Wyoming in a consolation match on Saturday.
Cal Poly walked away with the doubles point after the duo of sophomore Eliza Bates and freshman Sarah MacCallum picked up a win at court three and redshirt junior Delanie Dunkle and sophomore Peyton Dunkle were victorious at the top court.
The only other Mustang point for the remainder of the matchup came from Peyton Dunkle in singles play, allowing her to join Bhunu as the only Cal Poly players to have postseason singles victories.
The Mustangs will look to carry this postseason experience into the offseason as they hope to build on a second-place Big West finish.