Sophomore Tomas Aranguiz earned a win to give the Cougars the lead 3-2 before three consecutive singles wins by Fresno Pacific sealed their victory for the day on Friday, March 28. Photo credit: Steven Mercado
The No. 10-ranked Azusa Pacific men’s tennis team suffered a close loss to No. 9-ranked Fresno Pacific for the second time this season, making it a season sweep of the Cougars for the Sunbirds on Friday, March 28.
APU fell behind early, losing two of three doubles matches to FPU. To begin the day, Brendan Aguilar and Leonardo Urquidi defeated senior Freddy Wilkens and sophomore Tomas Aranguiz at No. 2 doubles, 8-2. The Cougars answered at No. 1 doubles when sophomore Jan Meyer and junior Gary Yam beat Kyle Rowe and Thomas Gely, 8-4. Michael Tymkiw and Stefan Loop closed doubles play at the No. 3 spot with an 8-5 victory over the freshmen team of Pascal Engel and Alan Leahy.
The Cougars started singles play strong with back-to-back wins. No. 5-ranked Meyer defeated Gely 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 singles.Aranguiz then defeated Loop 6-3, 6-2 at No. 6 singles, giving the Cougars a 3-2 lead in the match.
The Sunbirds wasted little time answering. At No. 4 singles, Aguilar defeated Leahy 6-2, 6-2 and Rowe topped Engel 6-4, 6-3 to take a 4-3 Fresno lead in the match. Urquidi defeated Yam in a heated match at No. 5 singles, 7-5, 7-6 (16-14), to seal the victory over Azusa Pacific.
To end the day, No. 7-ranked Wilkens worked for a three-set win over Tymkiw, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 10-8. This was Wilkens’ 14th consecutive singles win of the season.