COSTA MESA, Calif. -- A pair of tight doubles matches both swung in Vanguard’s favor, leading to a doubles sweep that provided the margin of victory in the Lions’ 6-3 win over the NAIA’s No. 6-ranked Azusa Pacific Saturday afternoon.
The Cougars served for match point at No. 1 doubles, but Vanguard broke the serve of Azusa Pacific’s top doubles tandem of juniors Matthijs Bolsius and Mathias Weber to tie the match at 8-8 and eventually post the 9-8 win. At No. 3 doubles, freshmen Janosch Apelt and Ilja Ikonnikov were unable to force the doubles tiebreaker and suffered a 9-7 defeat.
After the doubles sweep, Vanguard completed the win with straight-sets victories at No. 1 and 3 singles, with Tino Brodar’s 6-3, 6-2 victory over sophomore Daniel Moore at No. 3 providing the match-clinching point for the No. 8-ranked Lions.
Azusa Pacific posted a strong finish to the match, winning 3 of the remaining 4 matches for the final 6-3 margin. Weber defeated Sandro Bucher in straight sets at the No. 4 position, 6-2, 6-2, and freshman Whitman Hough tallied a 6-4, 6-1 win over Blake Lamberth at No. 6. Apelt won his fourth straight singles match, improving to 9-3 on the season at the No. 2 spot with a 3-set win over Fredric Sandberg, the No. 13-ranked NAIA singles player nationally.
“It’s never easy to lose, but on the flip side, what we’re really trying to accomplish is getting our team geared up to make a run at the national tournament,” Cougar head coach Mark Bohren said. “The bottom line is that I still think we’re getting better. We’ve lost a lot of close matches this season, and hopefully at the end of the year, we’ll win these close ones.”
The loss drops Azusa Pacific back to fifth place in the Golden State Athletic Conference standings, 1 win behind Vanguard. The Cougars’ record drops to 10-11 overall, 7-5 in GSAC play, while Vanguard improves to 13-5 overall, 8-5 GSAC. Azusa Pacific visits No. 4-ranked Fresno Pacific on Tuesday, April 7, before returning home to host its final 3 dual matches of the regular season.
SINGLES
1. Florian Lemke (VU) def. Matthijs Bolsius (APU); 6-2, 6-0
2. Janosch Apelt (APU) def. Fredric Sandberg (VU); 6-4, 6-7 (10-4)
3. Tino Brodar (VU) def. Daniel Moore (APU); 6-3, 6-2
4. Mathias Weber (APU) def. Sandro Bucher (VU); 6-2, 6-2
5. Nils Iwdal (VU) def. Ronald Chow (APU); 6-4, 1-6 (10-4)
6. Whitman Hough (APU) def. Blake Lamberth (VU); 6-4, 6-1
Order of finish: 1, 3*, 4, 5, 6, 2
(*=clinching match)
DOUBLES
1. Lemke/Sandberg (VU) def. Bolsius/Weber (APU); 9-8
2. Brodar/Dominic Stockler (VU) def. Chow/Moore (APU); 8-4
3. Bucher/Thomas Frank (VU) def. Apelt/Ilja Ikonnikov (APU); 9-7
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3
