The Pomona-Pitzer Men’s Tennis Team cruised into the SCIAC championships with hopes of glory and perhaps an upset of top team Redlands sprinkled in.

The team, however, never got that shot at the number one team in SCIAC, as they lost to Claremont-Mudd in the semifinals.

The crucial double’s point seemed to be the defining aspect of the match. It was the difference in the 4-3 contest.

The team dropped all of the double’s sets, losing 8-6, 8-6, and 8-5 in the eight-game matches.

"Doubles were close, but we didn’t pull it out," remarked Chris Ross ’00. "They were all lost by [just] a break. That was the big difference, as losing the doubles’ point really hurt us."

Down 1-0 early in the course of the match, the team then sent out its top three singles players–Adam Saphier ’99, Ken Su ’99, and David Fern ’01—to face the tough top three of CMS.

But though the singles players put forth solid efforts, "their number one and number three played awesome and beat our players," said Ross.

"Ken Su split sets [against the number two man from CMS] keeping us in the match when we [the number four through number six single’s players] went out, but he cramped up in the middle of his third set and had to default."

Thus Su was the unfortunate victim of the decisive match against CMS and of the stifling heat that penetrated the courts. "He poured his heart and soul into the match, but his legs couldn’t handle the intense heat," added Ross.

Earlier in the season the team suffered a 5-2 loss at the hands of the Stags when short a player. This past weekend, however, the team was well prepared and nearly pulled out the victory.

"Against CMS we thought we played really well," said Fern. It would have been nice to get the win, [but the doubles point] was probably our best chance right there."

Not securing that point paved the way to CMS’s victory, but Pomona-Pitzer still salvaged a third place victory sweeping Occidental 4-0.

Third place is not so much of a consolation for the team as is their bid for the NCAA Regionals which will take place in May. The team will face the Banana Slugs of UC-Santa Cruz, a team they lost to 6-1 in their last meeting.

Though the team suffered a big loss to the Goliath of Division III Men’s Tennis, you may recall the "David-like" upset that Dylan Nachand ’01 pulled just two weeks ago. "Hopefully the slug-buster can continue his reign over the little banana slugs," said Ross. "We all need to have a good showing against UCSC to make a game of it. To win, we have to come together as a team and take it to them in the doubles, then ride the wave of momentum straight through the singles and all the way to victory."

"We expect a very tough match," Fern realistically added. "[But] we hope to practice hard and pull an upset."

But before the inevitable match-up with the worms, several of the team members will travel to Ojai this weekend to compete in the nation-wide Division III individual championships. Five members will represent the team, including Saphier, Su, Fern, and Ross in singles as well as Nachand in doubles.

However, the crux of the season rides on the upcoming battle against UCSC. Perhaps with several "Davids" slinging stones at the monster Santa Cruz, the team can push forward to the NCAA Nationals.