Agony is building up for the Aggies.
Just one week after losing in each of its first two home contests of the season, UC Davis headed back on the road looking for some relief.
Unfortunately, that relief was nowhere to be found.
The first piece of bad news the Aggies received was that their match in Santa Barbara, originally scheduled for Saturday, was postponed until Monday.
Due to the inclement weather conditions, the Aggies’ weekend didn’t start until Sunday in San Luis Obispo against the Mustangs.
UC Davis did not get off to a good start against Cal Poly losing two of three doubles matches and failing to get the doubles point.
The day only got worse for the Aggies once singles play began as they lost all six matches, resulting in losing the contest 7-0.
“They were definitely the better team,” said coach Daryl Lee. “I thought we could compete with more intensity in the doubles.”
As the Aggies tried to start off fresh the next day against the Gauchos, the beginning seemed very similar to the day before.
Once again the Aggies only won one of three doubles matches and failed to acquire the doubles point. However, for the second straight day, the duo of Hunter Lee and Nick Lopez was victorious.
“They are communicating much better,” Lee said.
Lee and Lopez competed in the No. 1 doubles match in both contests. On Sunday they defeated the highly competitive team of Matt Fawcett and Robert Foy of Cal Poly 8-6.
They then came back the next day to defeat Scott Hohenstein and Evan Jurgensen of UC Santa Barbara 8-6.
After failing to obtain the doubles point for the second straight day, the Aggies once again headed into singles play.
While the results this time around were not identical to the day before, they were not much different either.
The Aggies fell in five of the six singles matches resulting in a 6-1 loss. All six singles matches were decided in straight sets with the Gauchos winning the No. 2 through No. 6 matches.
The Aggies lone point of the weekend came from freshman Toki Sherbakov’s victory against Phillip Therp in the No. 1 singles match.
“That was a great performance,” Lee said. “[Toki] has such a strong will out there. He did not allow any negative emotion to interfere with that.”
By picking up a victory against the Gauchos, Sherbakov improved his dual match play record to 7-3. As a result, every one of his victories have come from the top half of the ladder.
“As a freshman, it is challenging to excel,” Lee said. “He has definitely competed against some strong competition.”
After adding these two latest losses, the Aggies record stands at 4-7 for the season and 1-2 in the Big West Conference.
UC Davis returns to action on the road this Saturday when it competes against Saint Mary’s at noon.
ZANDER WOLD can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
