Box Score in HTML Format

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Playing in the team's third match in four days on the West Coast, the 27th-ranked Christopher Newport men's tennis team pulled away for a 6-3 win at Cal Lutheran (1-8). The Captains improve to 6-3 on the season and will have just one more match in the Golden State before returning to the East Coast this weekend. 

Christopher Newport went 2-1 in doubles and 4-2 in singles play to capture the win against the Kingsmen. Three Captains finished with two wins on the day, highlighted by the performance of rookie Andy Mason.

Mason captured wins at No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles in the match, while senior Arttu Fiva and sophomore Nicholas Ruzicka were the other two Captains will two victories. Fiva and Ruzicka won at 5 and 6 singles, respectively, while the two paired for the win at No. 3 doubles. Mason's win at 2 doubles came with partner William Trang. 

CNU opened the match with a 2-1 lead after doubles, in three highly competitive matches on the beautiful California afternoon. Trang/Mason and Ruzicka/Fiva each pulled out 8-6 wins for the Captains, while Justin Cerny and David Reed suffered a tight loss at No. 1, 9-8 (5). 

In singles action, Mason defeated Lucas Tilly at No. 3 (6-3, 6-1) while his classmate, freshman Dominic Lacombe, added the win at No. 4 singles over Jake Haffner (6-3, 6-4). Fiva won a first-set breaker over Michael Sulahian, and clinched a straight set win for his 58th career singles victory. Finally, at 6 singles, Ruzicka won in straight sets over Sebastian Ariza (6-2, 6-1). 

The Captains will close out their trip to California on Friday, March 10, as CNU will face No. 18 Redlands at 1:00 pm.