Author: Emily Daggett
The Occidental Men’s Tennis team battled harsh weather and stiff competition to finish a surprising third place in the SCIAC Championships Friday and Saturday, Apr. 20-21. The Tigers, who had a tough season, came into the tournament as the fifth seed. Their breakthrough performance this weekend elevated them to the level of the elite teams in the conference. “We are particularly happy with the tournament,” Seth Brown (senior) said. “It gave us a chance to prove to the teams at the top of the conference that we belong in the upper-echelon of the teams.”
After a nine hour rain delay on Friday, the Tigers handily defeated Cal Lutheran 5-2. The victory set the tone for the rest of the tournament and was especially impressive because Cal Lutheran beat Oxy 6-3 just last week. The Kingsmen, the 4th place team coming into the tournament, were ranked 29th in the nation.
“Watching our team rally and get pumped up against a rival school that had beaten us the week before was pretty special,” Vic Sowers (sophomore) said. “The energy and bond between all of us carried people through some pretty inspired individual performances.” At #2 doubles Reid Fenning and Mike Kuhn (sophomores) won their match 8-4 for the 5th point to clinch overall team victory. “When we beat Cal Lutheran it was important and dramatic,” Fenning said. “It was incredible to see the team come together when we got our first win.”
The unexpected triumph over the Kingsmen gave the Tigers momentum coming into Saturday’s matches. Though Oxy lost 6-0 to number two in the nation Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, they rallied to defeat Pomona-Pitzer 6-3. Pomona came in to the tournament ranked third in SCIACs and 21st in the nation so the Tigers’ victory was especially sweet. Alex Montgomery (first-year) clinched the victory with his win at #6 singles and Daniel Ikuta (junior) added another win to put the Tigers ahead decisively. Fenning and Kuhn pulled out another big doubles win, defeating their opponent 9-7.
First year head coach Gerard Picariello was overjoyed with the results. “We knew going into the tournament we could come back from the Cal Lutheran defeat,” Picariello said. He praised Rozell Hodges (junior) for his stand out singles and doubles play as well as Kuhn, Fenning and Brown but stressed that the performance was entirely a team effort. “Everyone upped their game,” Picariello said. “They came together and peaked at the right time.” Michael Guice (senior) attributes the wins to good coaching and the team’s overall attitude. “We were pretty confident that we could beat both Cal Lutheran and Pomona,” Guice said. “The key to beating these teams was the extra emphasis that Coach Picariello put on doubles strategy during our practices. His extensive knowledge of the game was primarily what pulled us through.”
The third place finish in SCIACs is the highest by an Oxy team in several decades and bodes well for the future of the program. Just three years ago the Tigers finished 7th out of the eight SCIAC teams but they have steadily improved since then. “We’re losing two key seniors, Seth Brown and Mike Guice, who really helped the team stay unified,” Sowers said. “But we have a really deep team returning and under our new coach I can see us getting better and better.” Vince Karlen (junior), Ikuta and Hodges will replace Brown and Guice as the senior leaders of the team. “We hope to take this momentum into next season and go after Redlands,” Karlen said. The strong season finish should motivate the team to work hard in the off-season and go after their goals. “The way the team finished is the way we need to begin next season,” Picariello said.
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