SANTA BARBARA, CA — After opening their spring break trip to California with three straight defeats, the Ephs have learned well from their experience, as they have responded with a three-match win streak, adding the Warriors of Westmont College to their list of consecutive wins earlier on Monday, with junior Brian Astrachan's three-set win at five-singles proving to be the difference between the two sides.
Astrachan started slowly, dropping the first set to his Warrior counterpart, sophomore Tommy Nightingale, 6-2. However, Astrachan rebounded well from the disappointment of the first set, leveling the match at one-set apiece with a 6-3 scoreline in the second set. With the fate of the match in the balance, Astrachan used the momentum he had gained from the second set to complete the comeback, repeating the previous set's scoreline to finish off Nightingale and clinch the Ephs' first 5-4 victory of the year.
After the match, Eph head coach Dan Greenberg commented on the team effort that lifted Astrachan in the third set: "Everyone fought well today, and I think that really helped Astrachan make his comeback."
The Ephs continued their formidable doubles form against the Warriors, taking two of the three possible points to give themselves an advantage going into the singles portion of the dual.
All three courts finished within 10 minutes of each other, and when the dust settled the Ephs emerged the victors at two- and three-doubles, with the duo of junior Jose Raventos and sophomore Rohan Shastri downing their opponents, Warrior freshmen Christian Mathis and Jan Sibbel, by the comfortable margin of 8-4, a scoreline that was repeated by the Eph first-year tandem of Brian Grodecki and Sachin Raghavan, as they cruised against Nightingale and his partner, freshman Travis Smelley.
With the lead in their grasp, the Ephs would never hand it over in singles, in spite of the match remaining close the entire time.
First off the court was Grodecki at the number four position, who looked dominating in his performance against Mathis, racing to a 6-3, 6-0 win and creating some breathing room between the Ephs and the Warriors in the overall match score.
The Warriors would not remain two points down for long, however, as mere minutes later Smelley cut the Warriors' deficit in half as he dismissed Eph sophomore Alex White on court 6, 6-1 and 6-2.
The back-and-forth nature of the scoreline would continue as a string of match completions left the score at 4-all.
Raventos pulled the Ephs to within one point of victory after his strong performance at one-singles against Warrior junior Carl-Philip Lundqvist, defeating him 6-4, 6-2, but the next two points would fall in favor of the Warriors, as Raghavan was forced into a retirement at two-singles due to illness, before Eph junior Howard Weiss was bested on court 3 by Warrior freshman Jan Sibbel by a single break in each set, 6-3 and then 6-4.
However, Astrachan came up clutch in a big way at five-singles to hand the Ephs their third victory in a row and to add to their growing confidence as they enter their final stretch of their spring break trip to California.
After the match, Greenberg added how impressed he was with the development of his team over the California trip: "Westmont is always a tough team, so I was happy to take the lead after doubles and for Jose [Raventos] and Brian G[rodecki] to win their spots convincingly. We're looking forward to our final two matches."
The Ephs head into the home stretch of their visit to California, as they travel back to Claremont tomorrow to face off against Gustavus Adolphus on the campus of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. That match is set to start at 1 PM EDT tomorrow afternoon.
Williams 5, Westmont 4
1. Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) def. Lindqvist, Carl-Philip (WESTMONT) 6-4, 6-2
2. Barnard, Josh (WESTMONT) def. Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) 6-2, 4-1 (retired)
3. Sibbel, Jan (WESTMONT) def. Weiss, Howard (WILLIAMS) 6-3, 6-4
4. Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Mathis, Christian (WESTMONT) 6-3, 6-0
5. Astrachan, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Nightingale, Tommy (WESTMONT) 2-6, 6-3, 6-3
6. Smelley, Travis (WESTMONT) def. White, Alex (WILLIAMS) 6-1, 6-2
1. Lindqvist, Carl-Philip/Barnard, Josh (WESTMONT) def. Sadowsky, Jordan/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 8-5
2. Raventos, Jose/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Sibbel, Jan/Mathis, Christian (WESTMONT) 8-4
3. Raghavan, Sachin/Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Nightingale, Tommy/Smelley, Travis (WESTMONT) 8-4
Match Notes:
Williams 4-3, nationally ranked #14, regionally ranked #3
Westmont 8-8
