SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The Ephs kicked off the second week of their spring break trip on Monday afternoon with their penultimate match against NAIA side, Westmont College. After a positive first week that saw the Ephs open their spring season with four straight wins, the purple and gold added made it five as they vanquished the Warriors 8-1.
In the doubles portion, the Ephs raced out to a quick 1-0 lead, after Brian Astrachan and Rohan Shastri jetted through their pro-set on court #3 against the Warrior pairing of David Akin and Jordan Strandness, 8-1.
Unlike their match against Redlands on Saturday, however, the Ephs were unable to convert the remaining two matches in play after tallying the first point; instead, they traded 8-4 scorelines with the fifteenth-ranked NAIA team.
First, it was the home side, who leveled the overall match score thanks to the industry of Travis Kimsey and Carl-Philip Lindqvist at one-doubles, who got the better of the sophomore-senior combination of Brian Grodecki and Alexander Schidlovsky.
It didn't take long for the Ephs to respond, however, as the ever-reliable duo of Jose Raventos and Jordan Sadowsky improved their doubles record to 5-0 on the season.
With their 2-1 doubles advantage in hand, the Eph juggernaut rolled through singles without dropping a set to the southern California outfit.
Grodecki cruised to a comfortable 6-2, 6-0 victory at the three position to continue his unbeaten singles record this year, and fellow Ephs, Howard Weiss and Blake Mackall, didn't take long to follow suit, recording scoreline of 6-3, 6-2 and 6-4, 6-3 respectively at six- and five-singles, clinching the dual for the team from western Massachusetts with three matches still left on the court.
In spite of having clinched the dual, the Ephs weren't about to stop at 5-1, as Raventos and Sachin Raghavan were the next ones to notch wins of their own on courts #1 and #4. Each battled to 6-4 opening sets, before the Costa Rican had an easier go of it in the second, winning 6-2, while the New-York-City native emulated his first set performance, finishing off his match 6-4 in the second.
With only one match remaining, Travis Kimsey pushed Shastri the distance in each set in an attempt to earn his team a consolation point, but the junior from Williamstown got the better of his Colorado counterpart in both of the 6-all tiebreakers by a 7-3 margin.
"I thought we competed really well throughout the lineup," commented Eph head coach Dan Greenberg after the match. "It was tough conditions out there today and wasn't the cleanest tennis, but our guys focused on the task at hand and got it done."
With five of their six matches slated for spring break now behind them, the Ephs' final west-coast showdown will be against the nationally second-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, where they will put their unbeaten record on the line in what is sure to be a very stern test. The match is set to get underway on Wednesday afternoon in Claremont at 4 PM PDT.
Williams 8, Westmont 1
- Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) def. Lindqvist, Carl-Philip (WESTMONT) 6-4, 6-2
- Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Kimsey, Travis (WESTMONT) 7-6(3), 7-6(3)
- Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Whalen, Luke (WESTMONT) 6-2, 6-0
- Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) def. Mathis, Christian (WESTMONT) 6-4, 6-4
- Mackall, Blake (WILLIAMS) def. Akin, David (WESTMONT) 6-4, 6-3
- Weiss, Howard (WILLIAMS) def. Strandness, Jordan (WESTMONT) 6-3, 6-2
- Kimsey, Travis/Lindqvist, Carl-Philip (WESTMONT) def. Grodecki, Brian/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 8-4
- Raventos, Jose/Sadowsky, Jordan (WILLIAMS) def. Mathis, Christian/Whalen, Luke (WESTMONT) 8-4
- Astrachan, Brian/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Akin, David/Strandness, Jordan (WESTMONT) 8-1
Order of Finish:
Doubles - 3, 2, 1
Singles - 3, 6, 5, 1, 4, 2
Match Notes:
Williams 7-0, nationally ranked #14, regionally ranked #4
Westmont 6-5, NAIA ranked #15
