The Sacramento State men’s tennis team lost its fourth straight match Sunday after a 5-2 defeat to Yale at the Rio Del Oro Racquet Club.
The Hornets (7-10, 5-2 Big Sky) began doubles with a win after the No. 1 duo of sophomore Mikus Losbergs and junior Kasparas Zemaitelis defeated senior Alex Hagermoser and junior Stefan Doehler 6-1, in what assistant coach Kevin Kurtz said was their best doubles game of the season.
“I think we came out hungry,” Kurtz said. “Everyone was pretty fired up, we played mature, we played tough, and we’ve been talking about that.”
The No. 2 tandem of freshman Hermont Legaspi and sophomore Donald Hall won 6-3 over junior Ziqi Wang and freshman Dylan King to clinch the doubles point for Sac State despite junior Christopher Clayton and sophomore Dom Miller falling (6-4) to seniors Tyler Lu and Photos Photiades at the No. 3 spot.
Losbergs began singles competition with a quick 6-2, 6-0 win over Lu to at the No. 1 spot to take a 2-0 team lead.
“For short, it was my biggest win this season,” Losbergs said. “This guy was NCAA top-65, he was exactly (No.) 65 — it’s my best win these two years, by far.”
Sac State lost its 2-0 lead after five straight singles matches to Yale. Miller lost (6-3, 6-2) to Wang at the No. 2 spot, Clayton fell (6-3, 6-4) to freshman Andrew Heller at No. 5 and Hall was defeated (6-3, 6-3) at No. 6 by sophomore Dennis Wang.
“I think it’s clear to see that the top teams’ first serve and a big forehand is very important to set up the point,” Clayton said. “For most of the players, they had a really good first serve, and then they were able to set up the point and be aggressive.”
Freshman Luis Chabut and Zemaitelis pushed Yale to three-set matches. Zemaitelis battled against King for a 7-6 loss, a 10-8 win and a 6-4 loss to conclude the No. 3 competition with another Yale point. Chabut matched up against Doehler at the No. 4 spot for the final loss (7-6, 4-7, 7-5) of the day for the Hornets.
“The big difference between me and my opponent was serve and how we played deciding points,” Chabut said. “That’s it, honestly — he played better deciding points.”
Sac State will play Drexel on March 30 at 1 p.m. at the Rio Del Oro Racquet Club.
Additional reporting by Matthew Dyer
