AZUSA, Calif. – Claremont High School graduate David James Brownlee led No. 10 Azusa Pacific to a 4-3 win over NCAA Division III No. 24 Pomona-Pitzer in Brownlee's collegiate debut to open the 2025 season with a Saturday morning win in a local affair at the Munson & Bavougian Tennis Complex.
 
Brownlee teamed up with his former high school teammate Brody Bohren at No. 3 doubles and won 6-4 in their first match together. After the Cougars went on to clinch the doubles point, Bohren and Brownlee both rushed out to 3-0 leads in their singles matches to keep the momentum for the Cougars.
 
Brownlee cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win in his collegiate debut at No. 4 singles. Soeren Grandke and Joan Crespo then each earned straight-set wins to lift the Cougars to their first win of the season, clinching the match before the Sagehens got on the board.
 
Pomona-Pitzer won each of the three remaining matches in match tiebreakers, making the final score look closer. Azusa Pacific remains undefeated against Pomona-Pitzer with 12 wins in a row against the Sagehens. This is the fourth year in a row that the Cougars have won the season opener.
 
Grandke and Crespo won their first doubles match together 6-4. They were the last doubles match left after Pomona-Pitzer won at the No. 1 position, but Grandke and Crespo ensured the Cougars had the advantage going into singles.
 
Grandke played at the No. 2 singles position for just the third time in his career and he remains undefeated at that position, earning a 6-1, 6-4 triumph. Crespo also won in straight sets, playing No. 5 singles. He won 6-3, 6-2 in his Cougar debut to clinch the first victory of the 2025 season.
 
The Cougars have only a short break, returning to action at 2 p.m. against Stanton.
 
SEASON PREVIEW
 
Let's call it the PacWest slam. That's what Azusa Pacific men's tennis is pursuing as the Cougars go for a fourth-consecutive PacWest title, and the conference's coaches have tabbed the Cougars as the favorites to win the title with all but one first-place vote.
 
The nod shouldn't come as a surprise since the Cougars return five of the seven players that led them to the PacWest title last season, and looked dominant against PacWest opponents at the ITA West Regional in the fall.
 
Even without No. 2 singles player Miha Velicki, the Cougars still had three of the four semifinalists in the fall singles championships as reigning PacWest Player of the Year Elias Emilio Walter won the title. Soeren Grandke and Joan Crespo were the other two semifinalists with Grandke finishing runner-up.
 
David James Brownlee, Brodie Bohren and Max Schmidhauser will fill out the rest of the Cougars' lineup with a handful of other players on the roster to compete for playing time.
 
Reigning PacWest Coach of the Year Mark Bohren isn't getting ahead of himself as the new season gets set to start on Saturday against Pomona-Pitzer. "The goal at this point is just to get better and grow as a team. If we focus at being the best team we can be each day and just developing, the results will come."
 
Walter and Velicki have a chance to complete a rare achievement this year. In their fourth and final season with the Cougars, they are both seeking a fourth-consecutive PacWest title and fourth-consecutive All-PacWest selection. Hawai`i Pacific's Jaume Martinez-Vich (2013-16) is the only player in PacWest history to achieve this so far.
 
Walter and Velicki have played 56 doubles matches together which is the third-most of any duo in Cougar history, trailing only the duos of Boris Bakalov/Tom Jelsma and Sam Fletcher/Adam Davidson. They have combined for 89 singles wins too and will give the Cougars one of the best duos at the top of the lineup in the PacWest.
 
Grandke won PacWest Freshman of the Year last season with his 21-2 record in singles, and has gotten his sophomore season off to a strong start with his performance this fall. His performance last season was reminiscent of fellow Germans Jakob Schnaitter and Jan Meyer who also earned PacWest Freshman of the Year awards after collecting 20+ wins while playing primarily at No. 3 singles. Schnaitter and Meyer both went on to be two of the winningest Cougars singles players, winning a combined 93 percent of singles matches.
 
Brownlee and Crespo are the additions to the Cougar roster that will feature prominently in the lineup. Brownlee is a true freshman, while Crespo is a junior transfer from Lamar. Both players performed well at the ITA West Regional with Brownlee taking out the No. 7 seed to reach the quarterfinals while Crespo defeated Hawai`i Pacific's Adam Vasir to reach the semifinals where he faced eventual champion Walter. The two newcomers will add critical depth to an otherwise veteran lineup.
 
Brody Bohren is back for his third season, and the lefty has been a key part of the Cougars' doubles success over the last two years while providing depth in the singles lineup. He has 14 singles wins and 21 doubles wins in his career going into his junior year. He'll be competing for playing time with Schmidhauser who went undefeated in his return to tennis last season. The graduate student ended a four-year hiatus from tennis last season and showed no signs of rust, setting him up for success in his final year of eligibility as he looks to get more opportunities in the lineup.
 
The Cougars' season starts with a Saturday doubleheader on February 1 against Pomona-Pitzer and Stanton. The first PacWest opponent will be Point Loma as the Cougars hit the road on February 8. Washburn, coached by former Azusa Pacific assistant coach Kirby Ronning, will come to Azusa Pacific on March 5, just four days after the Cougars host rival Biola, which is also coached by a former Azusa Pacific assistant coach, David Goodman.
 
Azusa Pacific hosts Hawai`i Pacific, which is No. 2 in the PacWest preseason coaches poll on March 10. The top-8 teams in the PacWest will advance to the PacWest Championships on April 17-19 in Surprise, Arizona. The winner of that tournament along with four at-large teams will advance to the NCAA West Regional in the second week of May. The two winners of the first-round regional matches will punch their tickets to Altamonte Springs, Florida for the NCAA Division II Men's Tennis National Championships on May 19-25.