SAN DIEGO -- The Azusa Pacific men's tennis team swept all three doubles matches against Point Loma, which proved to be just enough to lift the Cougars to another 5-4 victory, completing the weekend in the San Diego area with a pair of wins over nationally ranked teams.
Match Results
Less than 15 hours after the Cougars' 5-4 win over UC San Diego, the team was back on court to play the 45th-ranked Sea Lions. At No. 1 doubles Jan Meyer and Gary Yam defeated Andre Staab and Daniel Milliken 8-5 after having suffered just their second loss as a pair in a dual match the night before.
Pascal Engel and Ben Eger continued their fine start as a pair picking up their second consecutive win to start the season, winning 8-4. Then at No. 3 doubles, Shepherd Newcomb got his first doubles win as a Cougar, pairing with Alan Leahy for the crucial 8-6 victory.
At No. 1 singles, Meyer raced to a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Staab, who is ranked No. 37 in singles nationally, giving the Cougars a 4-0 lead. Meanwhile, Engel was pulled from the singles lineup at No. 5 after battling through a long three-set match the night before, moving freshman Cameron Backman up to the No. 5 position in his collegiate debut while Tomas Aranguiz took the No. 6 spot.
CJ Erion got the Sea Lions their first point of the match, defeating Backman 6-1, 6-3. Then Martin Blaho defeated Eger 7-5, 6-4 at the No. 2 singles position in a rematch from the ITA West Regional Fall Tournament, where Eger defeated Blaho en route to the title. That left Azusa Pacific with a 4-2 lead, and the three remaining singles matches all in a deciding set.
After being a late addition to the singles lineup, Aranguiz dropped the first set to Jack Alston by a narrow 6-4 margin. Aranguiz evened the match by winning the second set 6-3, and then was the first to conclude his deciding set by winning 6-2, clinching the Cougars' second victory of the season.
Azusa Pacific eventually dropped the two remaining singles matches with Milliken rallying to defeat Yam 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, and James Tenbroeck snuck out a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 win over Leahy at No. 3 singles.
The Cougars have their season opener next Saturday against Vanguard at 11 a.m.
