Cal Poly Women’s Tennis wrapped their regular season with a sweep over UC Riverside and a narrow loss to Blue-Green rival UC Santa Barbara.
The Mustangs (10-9, 5-4 Big West) were close to upsetting the No. 53 ranked Gauchos (14-7, 9-0 Big West) after cruising to a sweep over the Highlanders (4-19, 0-9 Big West)
Mustangs cruise past Highlanders with a sweep
Cal Poly started the Friday doubleheader against UC Riverside with a dominant 7-0 sweep at the Mustang Tennis Complex on April 19.
The Mustangs won all six singles and two doubles matches in straight sets against the Highlanders.
The Dunkle pairing of fifth-year Delanie Dunkle and junior Peyton Dunkle opened the match in commanding fashion, winning the No. 1 pairing match 6-2, improving to 12-3 on the season and 5-1 in Big West play.
Then sophomore Kennedy Buntrock and junior Eliza Bates extended their unbeaten streak to seven matches as the Mustangs clinched the doubles point for the 13th time this season in a 6-3 victory at the No. 3 pairing.
In singles matches, Delanie made quick work of her opponent at No. 1, winning 6-0, 6-1, while junior Romane Mosse secured her 11th consecutive singles victory, 6-3, 6-1, at the No. 3 spot.
Moose moved to 14-4 on the season and 7-1 in Big West play.
In only her second career singles match, sophomore Sarah MacCallum rolled to the match-clinching victory with a 6-2, 6-2 win at the No. 6 spot.
Both graduate student Melissa LaMette and sophomore Alexandra Ozerets won their first-set tiebreaks en route to dominant second-set match victories.
Ozerets won 7-6 (7-2), 6-0 in her second career match at the No. 2 spot, and LaMette’s 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 victory at No. 4 added onto the dominant performances.
Buntrock ran away with a 6-3, 6-2 victory at the No. 5 spot to improve to 10-6 this spring and finish the duals.
Mustangs drop loss in final match to the Gauchos
Cal Poly Women’s Tennis dropped their regular season finale against UC Santa Barbara on Sunday, April 21.
The Mustangs were defeated 4-3, which extended the Gauchos’ winning streak to nine.
The Mustangs finish the season with the No. 6 seed going into the Big West Championships, with Cal State Fullerton holding the head-to-head tiebreaker over Cal Poly.
The Dunkle sisters won their doubles match 4-3. The dynamic duo is now 13-3 in doubles on the season, and they are ranked No. 37 doubles in the country.
Peyton, alongside junior Romane Mosse, secured two straight victories in singles after going down 0-2.
Peyton won her match 6-3 and 7-5, while Mosse won 6-4 and 6-2. This is Mosse’s 12th straight win this season, and she finished 15-4, along with 8-1 in Big West Matches.
The Mustangs found themselves down after Ozerets lost her match 6-2 and 6-4.
Buntrock won a decisive 6-2 and 7-5 victory, which put the match at a tie, 3-3. Buntrock ended the season with five straight victories and was 11-6 during the season.
It came down to the final game, where LaMette found herself with a 6-4 and 5-7 score for her first two rounds.
Despite her effort, LaMette lost her match in a final tiebreaker, 6-1 where the Mustangs then went on to lose 4-3.
The Mustangs will go on in the Big West quarterfinals to play the No. 3 seed Hawai’i at noon on Thursday, April 25th at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.