REDLANDS, Calif. — The Ephs capped off the first week of their spring break trip to southern California on Saturday afternoon in the best possible way when they traveled east of Los Angeles to square off against Redlands University, taming the fifteenth-ranked Bulldogs by the margin of 7-2.
"I thought this was a really good match to end our first week," reflected Eph head coach Dan Greenberg after the match's conclusion Saturday evening. "Our doubles seemed to really be clicking today."
And click the Ephs' doubles teams did, as the purple and gold claimed victories on all three courts to put plenty of distance between themselves and the home side before singles had even begun.
Jose Raventos and Jordan Sadowsky improved their perfect doubles record together this season to 4-0 as they cruised to a comfortable 8-3 scoreline against the Bulldog pairing of Chase Lipscomb and Parker Wilson, and it didn't take long for fellow Ephs, Brian Astrachan and Rohan Shastri, to add a point of their own to the Ephs' early tally, defeating Taylor Hunt and Sawyer Patterson 8-4.
Desperate to not succumb to a 3-0 deficit heading into singles, the duo fighting at one-doubles for the Bulldogs, Joey Dulle and Jake Ly, made every effort to grab their team a point, racing out to an early break lead. However, the one break would not prove to be enough to insulate them from a late charge from Brian Grodecki and Alexander Schidlovsky, as the Eph tandem won seven of the last nine games to see off Dulle and Ly 8-6.
In need of a strong start to singles, the Bulldogs gave a good account of themselves at the one and four positions, as Lipscomb and Ly both took the first sets off their respective opponents in an attempt to give their fellow Bulldogs hope, but the other Ephs successfully resisted the surge of the fifth-ranked team in the western region.
Shastri was first to notch a point for either side, making quick work of Dulle on Court 2, 6-3 and 6-2, to leave the Ephs needing only one more point to clinch the match. However, it wasn't long before Ly reversed Shastri's scoreline in his own favor against Schidlovsky on Court 4 to finally get the Bulldogs on the board.
Needing to win all four of the remaining matches, the Bulldogs weren't done yet, as Lipscomb built off the momentum that Ly had begun, overcoming Raventos 6-4 in the second set at one-singles after brushing aside the Costa Rican in the first, 6-1.
The Bulldogs' rally at the eleventh hour stopped there, however, as Eph sophomore, Sachin Raghavan, kept his flawless singles streak alive for the 2015-2016 campaign, slowly unraveling the play of Cooper Lacetera in the first set, 6-3, before picking apart the New Yorker in the second, 6-1, assuring the Ephs of their sixth win on the bounce.
With two matches still left on the courts, neither Grodecki nor first-year, Deepak Indrakanti, disappointed, both recording wins for the New England outfit. Each played their opponents to a 6-3 scoreline in the first set, and each showed experience beyond their years to close out tight second sets: Grodecki taking the tiebreaker 7-3 and Indrakanti edging it 7-5.
"Redlands really fought in singles," praised Greenberg. "So I really felt that it was big for [Brian Grodecki] and Deepak [Indrakanti] to close out their second sets and for Sachin [Raghavan] and Rohan [Shastri] to find their range earlier in the matches."
With the first week of matches during the spring half of the season in the books, the Ephs have a day's rest before they travel northwest to the campus of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, where their match is set to get underway at 1:30 PM PDT on Monday afternoon.
Williams 7, Redlands 2
- Lipscomb, Chase (REDLANDS) def. Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) 6-1, 6-4
- Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Dulle, Joey (REDLANDS) 6-3, 6-2
- Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Wilson, Parker (REDLANDS) 6-3, 7-6(3)
- Ly, Jake (REDLANDS) def. Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 6-2, 6-3
- Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) def. Lacetera, Cooper (REDLANDS) 6-3, 6-1
- Indrakanti, Deepak (WILLIAMS) def. Suchodolski, Tom (REDLANDS) 6-3, 7-5
- Grodecki, Brian/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) def. Dulle, Joey/Ly, Jake (REDLANDS) 8-6
- Raventos, Jose/Sadowsky, Jordan (WILLIAMS) def. Lipscomb, Chase/Wilson, Parker (REDLANDS) 8-3
- Astrachan, Brian/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Hunt, Taylor/Patterson, Sawyer (REDLANDS) 8-4
Order of Finish:
Doubles - 2, 3, 1
Singles - 2, 4, 1, 5, 3, 6
Match Notes:
Williams 6-0, nationally ranked #14, regionally ranked #4 (Northeast)
Redlands 13-4, nationally ranked #15, regionally ranked #5 (West)
