CMS Wins 2012 SCIAC Men’s Tennis Championship
Fifth-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges collected its 21st Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) championship in men’s tennis with a 6-3 victory over No. 9 Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on Saturday at the University of Redlands.
The Stags jumped out to a 2-1 lead after the doubles matches, winning at No. 1 and No. 3. The pivotal point came at the No. 3 position, when Neel Kotrappa and Brandon Wei staved off the Sagehens in a tiebreak, 9-8 (2).
During singles, CMS relied on the bottom two-thirds of its lineup to get the job done. Robert Erani and Nik Marino both registered 6-3, 6-3 performances over their respective opponents at No. 3 and No. 4, while Mac Cahill came up with a 7-5, 6-3 triumph at No. 6. In addition, Alex Johnson rallied from a set down to notch the Stags’ sixth point with his 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-2 showing at No. 5.
Pomona-Pitzer gained hard-fought, three-set victories from Tommy Meyer at the top slot and Chris Wiechert at No. 2.
Beyond the championship match, No. 7 Cal Lutheran University pushed past the 16th-ranked Bulldogs in the third-place showdown, prevailing by a score of 5-4. No. 25 Whittier College came away with a 7-2 showing over Occidental College in the fifth-place contest.
Combining the head-to-head results with the tournament outcomes, CMS earned 14 points, which was three ahead of a tie for second between Pomona-Pitzer and Cal Lutheran. Redlands takes fourth, with Whittier, Occidental and Caltech following in the standings.
