No. 8 Redlands hand Poets first shutout loss this year

REDLANDS, Calif. - The Whittier College men's tennis team couldn't avoid its first sweep this season on Saturday afternoon as No. 8 University of Redlands handed the Poets a 9-0 loss in the regular-season finale.

The Poets (13-6, 3-4 SCIAC) led early in all three doubles matches, 2-1, but couldn't hold off the Bulldogs. Redlands won 8-4, 8-5, 8-4 at No. 1, 2 and 3 doubles each, respectively.

The purple and gold struggled in singles play as well as Redlands won five sets at love.

Whittier's No. 4 singles player, Lance Franey, had the best opportunity to help the Poets avoid the sweep but he was forced to retire in a second set tie-breaker due to a knee injury. Franey lost the first set 6-0 and trailed 5-2 in the second set but rallied to force the tie-breaker.

The match was delayed 2.5 hours due to rain.

The Poets return to action next Friday, April 17, at the SCIAC Championships hosted by La Verne at Redlands. WC earned the fifth-seed and will face the fourth-seeded, and No. 29, Pomona-Pitzer in the first round.

Results
Doubles
1. Spearman/Reading (UR) def. Robertson/DeLong (WC) 8-4
2. Trippel/Wong (UR) def. Carregha/Franey (WC) 8-5
3. Ouye/Fashouer (UR) def. Smith/Sun (WC) 8-4

Singles
1. Cameron Spearman (UR) def. Sean Robertson (WC) 6-0, 6-2
2. Mike Reading (UR) def. Justin DeLong (WC) 6-1, 6-0
3. Chris Trippel (UR) def. Patricio Carregha (WC) 6-2, 6-0
4. Aron Ouye (UR) def. Lance Franey (WC) 6-0, 6-6 (5-2) Ret.
5. Kevin Wong (UR) def. Gavin Smith (WC) 6-0, 6-4
6. Casey Fashouer (UR) def. Frank Sun (WC) 6-3, 6-1