Tigers Pick Up a Non Conference Split

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Mar. 19, 2009) – After a 15 day layoff, the Tigers finally were able to take the court again, facing two non conference opponents in Colorado College and Amherst College.  The Tigers came out firing to knock off the visiting Tiger squad from Colorado, but did not have the same luck against the undefeated Jeffs the next day. 

Showing no signs of rust after the long layoff, the Tigers went right after the visiting Colorado Tigers, jumping out to a convincing 8-3 victory in the doubles opener by Chris Wan / Reid Fenning.  The visitors struck back to take the second doubles match, and had the momentum, but Victor Sowers / Mike Kuhn swung that back in their favor with a huge 9-7 victory at the number three doubles position.

What seemed to be shaping up as a close match, actually was far from it, as Colorado rolled through the number one singles match to the tie the match at two wins apiece.  But that would be their last victory of the day, as Oxy rolled for five straight sweeps to secure the 7-2 victory.  Wan picked up a 6-1, 6-0 victory at the number three position while Ben Harrington picked up a 6-0, 6-2 victory at the number six position. 

Against Amherst, it was a different story as the visiting Jeffs remained undefeated in the division, with a solid 7-2 victory.  Amherst took the first two doubles matches before Kuhn / Sowers struck back with an 8-5 win.  Trailing by one, though, would be as close as Oxy would come, as the Jeffs took five of six singles matches to secure the win.  Chris Wan was the only Tiger to take a match in the singles dual, winning an epic 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 battle at the number two singles position.  Down a break late in the third, Wan had to break back just to force the tiebreaker, pulling out an 8-6 in the tiebreak to win and secure the three set win.   

Next up for Occidental (3-6, 1-3) will be Glendale CC at 3:30pm, on Saturday, March 21st, on the Tigers home courts. 

Occidental 7 – Colorado 2

Results:

Doubles

Fenning/Wan (Oxy) def. Solomon/Burt (CC); 8-3

Thirkell/Jonker (CC) def. Tyler Morgan (Oxy); 8-6

Kuhn/Sowers (Oxy) def. Reid/Modern (CC); 9-7

Singles

Dan Solomon (CC) def. Mike Kuhn (Oxy); 6-1, 6-2

Reid Fenning (Oxy) def. Nate Burt (CC); 6-2, 6-1

Chris Wan (Oxy) def. Brian Thirkell (CC); 6-1, 6-0

Victor Sowers (Oxy) def. Evan Jonker (CC); 6-4, 6-4

Stefan Pastor (Oxy) def. Thomas Modern (CC); 7-5, 6-2

Ben Harrington (Oxy) def. Sam Barnard (CC); 6-0, 6-3

Amherst 7 – Occidental 2

Results

Doubles

1. Sean Doerfler/Robby Sorrel (AC) def. C. Wan/D. May (Oxy) 8-4
1. Julian Camacho/Wes Waterman (AC) def. S. Pastor/T. Morgan (Oxy) 8-2
3. M. Kuhn/V. Sowers (Oxy) def. Tony Sheng/Alex Gumport (AC) 8-5

Singles

1. Julian Camacho (AC) def. M. Kuhn (Oxy) 6-3, 7-5
2. C. Wan (Oxy) def. Sean Doerfler (AC) 7-5, 3-6, (11-9)
3. Wes Waterman (AC) def. B. Harrington (Oxy) 6-0, 6-1
4. Robby Sorrel (AC) def. J. Fahira (Oxy) 6-2, 6-0
5. Tony Sheng (AC) def. V. Sowers (Oxy) 6-2, 6-3
6. Alex Kaufman (AC) def. S. Pastor (Oxy) 6-4, 6-3