CLAREMONT, Calif. — After starting off their spring break trip on the right foot against Division II Point Loma, the Ephs were handed their first Division III test of the spring semester as the Ephs took on the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer, and it was a match that the Eph faithful won't soon forget, as the purple and gold triumphed 5-4 on the back of sophomore Brian Grodecki's tremendous effort at three-singles to fend off a late comeback against veteran Sagehen, Jonathan Kim, to clinch the match for the visitors in a deciding set.
With the score level at 4-apiece, it was down to the match on court three, where the Eph sophomore really took it to the senior Sagehen from the outset, winning nine of the first eleven games on the way to establishing a set-and-a-double-break lead, 6-2, 3-0. Kim was not going to go down without a fight, however, as the California-native broke back twice in the second set to put the pressure on Grodecki. The Pennsylvanian didn't make it easy, however, and earned himself an opportunity to serve for the match at 5-4, but the Sagehen drew on his wealth of experience to break back, hold serve, and then break again to send the match into a third and final set.
Both players had to face down their nerves early on, as they opened the deciding set with four consecutive breaks, but Kim and Grodecki, who alone had seen four straight service games slip away from him, eventually righted their respective ships and held serve all the way to 5-5. However, this time it would be Grodecki who would win the eleventh game of the set, engineering a break of serve at the crucial moment and then audaciously slamming the door on the match in the very next game.
"[Brian Grodecki's match was] one of the best fights I've seen," praised Eph head coach Dan Greenberg after the match's conclusion. "He's an unreal competitor, and that showed out there today."
Complementing Grodecki's match-defining efforts, the Ephs also contributed a solid team performance in the doubles portion, claiming the 2-1 advantage heading into singles.
The pairings at two- and three-doubles led the way, as Jose Raventos and Jordan Sadowsky put the first point of the day on the board for the Ephs, as they picked apart Kim and his partner, Jake Yasgoor, 8-3, before Brian Astrachan and Rohan Shastri claimed their first win of the season together by handily defeating Kalyan Chadalavada and Thomas Low, 8-2.
Similar to Monday's match, however, the Ephs' opposition would not allow themselves to be 3-0 down heading into the singles portion, as Graham Maassen and the towering 6'6'' Spencer Simonides gave Grodecki and Alexander Schidlovsky all they could handle, in spite of being down an early break. The Sagehen pairing immediately pegged the Ephs back and fought to keep the match level until 7-7, when they orchestrated another break chance of their own, which they took full advantage of before making no mistake closing out the match to draw the Claremont side to within one point.
The Sagehens took little time to make up the remainder of the gap between themselves and the Ephs once singles had begun, as Yasgoor made quick work of Shastri at the number two position, 6-3, 6-1.
Again, however, similarities to the match against Point Loma emerged, as the Ephs tallied two more points, through the ever-reliable Sachin Raghavan and first-year Deepak Intrakanti at five- and six-singles respectively, to reestablish their two-point lead and to draw themselves within one point of ending the dual.
Yet that is where the similarities to the match on Monday ended, as the eighth-ranked Sagehens proved precisely why they're rated so highly, drawing level with the Ephs once again thanks to the performances of Maassen and Sam Malech.
Maassen stormed through the first set against Raventos at one-singles, but found himself just as quickly disadvantaged in the second, as the senior from Costa Rica earned himself an early break to go up 4-1. The California local quickly regained his footing in the match, however, and strung together five consecutive games to silence the top Eph's comeback.
Maassen's inspiring performance was quickly followed by an equally solid performance from Malech, who managed to keep an enterprising Schidlovsky at bay to take the first set 7-5, before dismissing the Eph senior in the second, 6-2.
With the fate of the dual resting entirely on Court 3, Grodecki redeemed the disappointment of losing his doubles match to see off Kim in three sets and lift the Ephs to a crucial, early-season victory against a top-10 opponent.
"What an incredible match," reflected Greenberg in his post-match interview, as he commended the performances of both teams. "Pomona really fought well, but we played very clean doubles for this early in the year. Our singles were up and down, but our young guys came up huge for us in the big moments, which was awesome to see."
With another day off ahead of them, the Ephs will venture back south to San Diego, where they will meet San Diego Mesa College on Friday, as they look to continue to build off their perfect start to the 2015-2016 season.
Williams 5, Pomona-Pitzer 4
- Maassen, Graham (P-P) def. Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) 6-1, 6-4
- Yasgoor, Jake (P-P) def. Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) 6-3, 6-1
- Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Kim, Jonathan (P-P) 6-2, 5-7, 7-5
- Malech, Sam (P-P) def. Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 7-5, 6-2
- Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) def. Mandic Marko (P-P) 7-6(4), 6-1
- Intrakanti, Deepak (WILLIAMS) def. Gearou, Sam (P-P) 6-2, 6-2
- Maassen, Graham/Simonides, Spencer (P-P) def. Grodecki, Brian/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 9-7
- Raventos, Jose/Sadowsky, Jordan (WILLIAMS) def. Kim, Jonathan/Yasgoor, Jake (P-P) 8-3
- Astrachan, Brian/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Chadalavada, Kalyan/Low, Thomas (P-P) 8-2
Order of Finish:
Doubles - 2, 3, 1
Singles - 2, 5, 6, 1, 4, 3
Match Notes:
Williams 4-0, nationally ranked #14, regionally ranked #4
Pomona-Pitzer 8-6, nationally ranked #8, regionally ranked #2
