Sophomore Jan Meyer cruised to victory at No. 1 singles and teamed up with junior Gary Yam for the No. 1 doubles victory in the win against Holy Names on Saturday, March 22. Photo credit: Steven Mercado
The Azusa Pacific men’s tennis team’s sophomore Jan Meyer and junior Gary Yam teamed up at No. 1 doubles for the second time this season Saturday, March 22. The team’s two freshmen, Pascal Engel and Alan Leahy, played together as a doubles team for the first time this season. The Cougars’ doubles performance propelled them to a 7-2 victory over Holy Names.
Meyer and Yam defeated Matthew Halligan and Brook Workenah at No. 1 doubles, 8-4. This improves their record as partners to 2-0. The comfortable No. 2 doubles duo of senior Freddy Wilkens and sophomore Tomas Aranguiz defeated Andrew Amor and Rafael Martinez, 8-6. Wilkens and Aranguiz improved their doubles record to 7-3. To finish the doubles sweep, Engel and Leahy defeated Tracy Beblie and Ivan Parra, 8-4.
The first singles match to finish was the No. 2 spot, in which Wilkens defeated Amor 6-2, 1-1 by way of a retirement. This was Wilkens’ 13th consecutive singles victory of the season, improving his record to 13-2.
Meyer followed with a dominant victory at No. 1 singles, defeating Beblie 6-0, 6-1 to improve to a 13-3 singles record this year. Engel followed with a No. 4 victory against Halligan, 6-4, 6-2. This was Engel’s 10th singles win of the season.
The Cougars won only one of the final three singles matches. Leahy lost a hard-fought matchup with Workeneh 5-7, 6-3, 10-6 at No. 3 singles. He fell to a 5-8 singles record for the season. Aranguiz also went three sets, emerging victorious against Martinez 6-2, 5-7, 10-4. The final singles matchup of the day was with sophomore Joseph Remington. He suffered his first loss of the season at the No. 6 spot, losing to Jonah Tahilan in three sets, 6-4, 6-7, 10-4.
With the win, No. 11-ranked Azusa Pacific improves to an 11-4 record, while Holy Names falls to 3-7. Friday, March 28, the Cougars will face Fresno Pacific for the second time this season after falling to the Sunbirds on the road, 6-3 on Monday, Feb. 17. The match will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Munson & Bavougian Tennis Complex.