The last home court advantage for two Cougar seniors was victorious as Azusa Pacific topped Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Wednesday afternoon 5-4.
Results
Azusa Pacific took hold of an early lead winning all three doubles matches against the NCAA Division III No. 2 ranked team.
Shepherd Newcomb and
Christian Schmid won 8-4 at the No. 2 position. At the No. 3 slot
Marnix Pluim and
Antonio Pejic defeated their opponents 8-6. The tandem of
Oliver Frank and
Pascal Engel rank No. 10 doubles team in the country won at the No. 1 spot 9-7.
Frank continues his perfect singles season winning 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 1 position. Pluim retired after losing his first set 6-1 at the No. spot. Schmid clinched the match topping his opponent 6-4, 6-2 at the No. 2 slot to improve his singles record to 21-1. Luconi fell 6-1, 6-0 to No. 31 at the No. 6 position. Newcomb won his first set and dropped his second leading to a tiebreaker where he came up short 2-6, 6-1, 10-5 at the No. 5 spot. Engel fell in two 7-6, 6-2 at the No. 3 slot against his No. 3 opponent.
The team took time after their match to acknowledge their two seniors
Pascal Engel and
Shepherd Newcomb.
Engel has dedicated the last four years to the Azusa Pacific tennis program. Throughout his career, he has gone 48-34 in singles and 64-36 in doubles. He is tied with the ninth most total wins in his first season of playing for the Cougars between singles and doubles Engel notched 34 in his rookie season in 2014. In 2014 Engel earned himself a spot in the Cougars record books for the seventh most single wins in his first year playing, winning 17 times.
Newcomb has represented the Cougars for three years after transferring from a junior college. While playing for the Cougars Newcomb has gone 20-15 in singles and 48-21 in doubles. This season Newcomb has played mostly at the No. 5 singles position and the No. 2 doubles spot. Where he has played one of his best collegiate seasons to date.
The Cougars travel to La Jolla Monday, May 1 to face No. 12 University of California San Diego in an NCAA Division II West Regional championship match-up. The winner of Monday's contest will advance to the NCAA Championships in Orlando, Fla. beginning on May 12. The teams played against each other twice this season where they split, both teams walked away winning 5-4.
.
