Sacramento State
Sacramento State Wins Indoor Home Match Against Cal Poly, 4-1
2/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
SACRAMENTO — After clinching the doubles point in close fashion, Sacramento State went up 2-0 in singles on the way to a 4-1 non-conference home men's tennis win against Cal Poly on Sunday afternoon inside Spare Time Indoor Tennis Center.
The Hornets (2-1) secured the first doubles match at No. 2, but the Mustangs (3-3) pulled even thanks to a 7-6 (4) victory on the No. 1 court from Garrett Auproux and Corey Pang — the sophomores' first time partnered together all season — over Sean Kolar and Marek Marksoo.
Sacramento State grabbed the lead, though, after Kasparas Zemaitelis and Niranjan Ram prevailed narrowly against seniors Devin Barber and Naveen Beasley, 7-6 (2).
Later on, Karl Enander picked up a win at the No. 6 spot in the lineup, as the true freshman known for his strong indoor game defeated senior Tom Miller, a former All-Big Sky Conference honorable mention, 7-5, 6-3.
Marksoo, however, then clinched the team victory at No. 4, 6-3, 7-6 (6) versus freshman Lucas Lesoeur.
The Mustangs led a duo of All-BSC First Team honorees at both No. 1 (where sophomore Ben Donovan was ahead 0-6, 6-4, 3-0 opposite Sean Kolar) and No. 3 (Pang, 7-6, 5-2 facing Roy Brandys) before the overall outcome was settled.
"The positive to take away is that the guys had great fight towards the end of the match, but it was too little too late. Donovan and Pang fought back and were on top when play was ended," head coach Nick Carless noted.
Donovan remains 4-1 in dual play so far this spring.
"Hopefully this loss will serve as a great learning experience for our team to get better at coming out ready to play from start to finish," assistant coach Mike Marquez said.
Cal Poly will return home to take on the ITA's 58th-ranked squad, New Mexico (4-5), at 1 p.m. Friday, and then San Francisco (1-1) at 10 a.m. Sunday. Attendance at Mustang Courts is free.
Both opponents will bring in top-50 players, as Lobo senior Samir Iftikhar, a former Davis Cup representative for Pakistan, is ranked No. 41 in singles, while the Dons' Bernardo Saraiva and Nils Skajaa are No. 48 in the country in doubles.
