by Gloria Diaz
Managing Editor
The University of La Verne men’s tennis team fell victim Saturday to No. 1 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference seeded Cal Lutheran by a score of 7-1.
Leopard doubles saw an impressive win from its top team, Chad Rodriguez and Jason Cortez.
No. 1 doubles had a career win against Cal Lu’s first doubles team, Arif Hasan and Amir Marandy. Cortez and Rodriguez were able to pull out the only win for ULV by a score of 8-5.
“It was the biggest upset all season, and to have done it with Jason was really great,” Rodriguez said. “I found out that day that I was going to play with him, and it turned out to work out well.”
“It was very exciting.” Cortez said. “I was nervous because of (Hasan’s) reputation. We played like we had nothing to lose.”
The Kingsmen would not relent in their fight to make up for the first doubles loss while Sundeep Samuel and Todd Hurst gave it their all. In the end, the Kingsmen would triumph over the Leopards by a score of 8-6.
Singles saw some close matches, but the Kingsmen would trounce ULV’s chances at victory in the six singles matches.
Coming off his first win against Hasan, Cortez was eager to bring another win for ULV.
But the all-SCIAC Hasan won the match, 6-4, 6-4.
“Jason played his best match against Hasan,” said head coach Steve Bergovoy. “Cal Lu is a much improved team.”
Hurst and Rodriguez put forth impressive efforts against the Kingsmen in their singles matches.
Samuel battled Junya Hasebe, but could not pull out a win as Hasebe would take the match by scores of 6-1, 6-3.
In the neighboring court, Rodriguez faced Marandy for the second time.
This time Marandy would not let Rodriguez clench the win.
Marandy managed to shut out Rodriguez in the first set, 6-0. Rodriguez broke the shut out in the second game, but Marandy would take the match by a score of 6-1.
Hurst went up against Quinn Calderon, but lost the match 6-2, 7-6.
“Hurst played surprisingly well,” Bergovoy said.
Bergovoy added that Hurst had not been to any practices because he is also a member of the ULV basketball team.
“We walked away with a lot of respect that day,” Bergovoy said. “It was a magnificent match.”
Currently ULV stands in 6th place in SCIAC.
Next the Leopards will face Wheaton College at 2 p.m. Thursday at Blickenstaff Pavilion.
