POMONA, Calif. – The 21st-ranked Brandeis men's tennis team pulled off an upset of 12th-ranked Pomona-Pitzer College tonight in California, as the Judges rallied from a 2-1 doubles deficit to defeat the Sagehens, 5-4. With the win, the Judges improve to 2-0 with their second-straight win over a ranked opponent, while PP falls to 3-2.
These two teams met last year in California with Pomona-Pitzer taking a 5-4 win after Brandeis won the first three doubles matches. This time around, it was the Sagehens who jumped out early, winning two of three in doubles. The hosts open the scoring with an 8-5 win at #3, while Brandeis rookies Jeff Chen (Northfield, Ill./New Trier) and Adam Tzeng (Eagle, Idaho/Eagle) won at #2 by the same score. At #1, Brandeis's David Aizenberg (Highland Park, Ill./Highland Park) and Anupreeth Coramutla (Monroe Township, N.J./Phillips Andover) took a 7-4 lead, but the Sagehen duo of Octave Bellet and Josh Gearou rallied to win the last four games, including an 8-6 win in the tiebreaker.
In singles action, Tzeng evened the match at 2-2 with a 6-3, 6-1, win over Sam Gearou at #4 singles. Coramutla gave Brandeis the lead by avenging his doubles loss to Josh Gearou, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2), at #2. Chen gave the Brandeis rookies their third win of the day, defeating Jansen Comadena at #5, 7-5, 6-1, to put Brandeis on the brink of victory. Aizenberg then clinched the win at #1 with 6-4, 6-3, win over Jed Kronenbourg to complete the comeback. Pomona-Pitzer won the final two matches at #3 and #6 to make for the final margin.
The Judges continue their February Break road trip to California on Thursday afternoon when they meet Redlands at 5 p.m. Eastern / 2 p.m. Pacific.