AZUSA, Calif. – Azusa Pacific men's tennis earned its third victory in as many days, defeating the No. 7 team in NCAA Division III Amherst by a score of 8-1, sweeping the singles action with just one set lost.
Match Results
The Cougar victory boosted their record to 11-3, while handing Amherst its first loss of the season after winning each of its first five matches with ease. On Friday, the Cougars will host a battle between the No. 17 teams in NCAA Divisions II & III when the Cougars host Kenyon.
Olger van Gent and Jan Meyer put the Cougars on the board with an 8-4 victory over the No. 5 pairing in NCAA Division III, which was the fourth consecutive victory for the Cougars' No. 1 team. Christian Scmid and Shepherd Newcomb then won 8-3 at No. 3 doubles for their sixth consecutive win this season.
At No. 2 doubles, Sasha Kingsley saw his first action of the year, playing his second career doubles match. However, the duo of Kingsley and Pascal Engel couldn't repeat their success from the 2014 season, taking an 8-3 defeat.
However, that was the closest Amherst got to the No. 17 team in NCAA Division II as the Cougars swept singles play. The only set the Cougars dropped was at No. 4 singles where Engel earned his first win over a nationally-ranked opponent this year, defeating No. 41 Zach Bessette 6-2, 4-6, 10-5 after taking a 6-1 lead to start the tiebreaker.
Nearly simultaneously, Newcomb led the only other tiebreaker of the day 6-0. He held on to win that second set tiebreaker 7-2 for a straight-set victory, 6-3, 7-6(2), at No. 6 singles.
Alan Leahy was the first Cougar to wrap up singles, winning at No. 3 singles 6-1, 6-2. Leahy now has 11 singles victories this season, which is tied for the most on the team with Meyer, who won his singles match 6-3, 6-3.
Schmid got a much-needed quick victory 6-0, 6-1 since the Cougars are playing for a fourth consecutive day on Friday. Van Gent then clinched the match with a 6-3, 6-4 victory at No. 5 singles. Both Schmid and Van Gent have been undefeated in singles this week.
