UC Davis
No. 68 Cal Poly Advances to Big West Championship Match on Saturday
4/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – For the second time in less than two weeks, the 63rd-ranked Cal Poly men's tennis team was able to fight off UC Davis – this time in the Big West Conference Tournament semifinals – capturing a 4-2 win on Thursday to advance to Saturday's tournament championship. The second-seeded Mustangs will battle top-seeded and central coast rival UC Santa Barbara for the tournament title.
On Saturday, Cal Poly will play for its third Big West Tournament championship in the last five years.
"Today was a great team effort from start to finish," head coach Nick Carless said.
Cal Poly (14-9 overall) junior Garrett Auproux (pictured) clinched the match for the Mustangs with a 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 victory over James Wade in the second position, after Cal Poly freshman Sreyas Kolachalam ousted UCD's Tommy Lam in three sets from the sixth spot, 6-0, 3-6, and 7-5 to provide the Mustangs a 3-2 match advantage.
Kolachalam was down 5-2 in the third set against Lam and clawed his way back to a 7-5 victory, setting up Auproux's match-clinching win.
"Sreyas coming back from being down 5-2 showed amazing fight for us today," said Carless.
Cal Poly collected the doubles point early, but not before the Aggies knotted the point at one-all, forcing the third matchup tiebreak. After Auproux and Tan defeated UCD's Whittle and Brett Bacharach from the second position, 6-3, the Aggies evened up the point with a 6-3 victory from Bryce McKelvie and Lam over Cal Poly sophomores Dan Cardiff and Karl Enander.
Cal Poly's No. 1 doubles duo of junior Corey Pang and Ben Donovan cemented the doubles point with a 6-4 win over Alec Adamson and Adam Levie.
UC Davis' McKelvie evened up the match at one with a straight set, 6-2, 6-3 decision over Cal Poly freshman Josh Ortlip from the fourth position. Cal Poly's Pang then answered back with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Bacharach from the third spot, providing Cal Poly a 2-1 match lead. For Pang, it was his team-leading 18th singles victory of the season.
Everett Maltby then knotted the match at two with a three-set comeback over Axel Damiens from the fifth position, 2-6, 6-2 and 6-2. Kolachalam and Auproux sealed the victory for Cal Poly from the sixth and second positions, as Donovan's matchup with Adamson at No. 1 was halted (Donovan was even with Adamson, one set apiece, and ahead in the third, 6-5).
"Garrett showed tremendous composure in his victory," Carless said. "He had three match points in the second set and was able to hold off Wade and clinch the match for us."
Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara met last weekend for the regular season conference title and the Gauchos beat the Mustangs in San Luis Obispo, 5-2. Over the past five years, only Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara have won the Big West Tournament title, and on Saturday, one of the Blue-Green rivals will make it a sixth.
Saturday's championship match is scheduled for 9 a.m. PDT from the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Follow live scoring on Twitter via @BigWestTennis and when referring to the championship, be sure to use #BWCTennis and #RaiseTheCup.
