DENVER – The University of Denver men's tennis team (5-1, 0-0 Summit) landed its second sweep of the 2025 season with a 7-0 win over Cal Poly at Denver Tennis Park on Friday.
 
After battling back to take the doubles point, Denver clinched the match at 4-0 with wins in Nos. 1, 4 and 5 singles. The Pioneers finished the night with a three-set win at No. 2 singles and two more victories in match tiebreaks on the final two courts.
 
Doubles:
Cal Poly took the lead in doubles with a win on the top court, but Denver's remaining two teams – both freshman/senior duos – responded to give the dual's first point to DU. The new team of senior Rikuto Yamaguchi and freshman Samuel Rovai leveled the doubles battle at one-apiece, and the winning match came from senior Daniel Sancho Arbizu and freshman Theo Coats after moving up to the No. 2 slot.
 
Singles:
Graduate student Connor Robb-Wilcox claimed Denver's first singles point, dropping just five games to match his fewest lost so far in a dual match this season. He won the first four games before his opponent held serve for the first time, though Robb-Wilcox would break once more in the set's final game for 6-1. The Utah native rallied back from a break down to start the second set and again broke in the last game, sealing a 6-4 win.
 
Sancho Arbizu moved to 5-0 on the year with a fifth straight-sets win at No. 1 singles. After trading breaks early, he grabbed a break lead again at 4-2 and stretched it to 5-2 before serving it out at 6-3. He broke to start the second set and held a two-break lead midway though. Despite giving one of those breaks back, he was able to successfully hold in the final game at 6-4.
 
Rovai secured the dual for Denver with his fifth win of the season as well, losing just six games in total. In the first set, he earned the first break midway through and added an insurance break for 5-2 before serving it out. The first eight games of the second all went in the server's favor before Rovai broke the tie with a break for 5-4 and held in the subsequent game to clinch the match.
 
The first singles match not to end in two sets ended with a 10-point tiebreak victory for Yamaguchi at No. 3 singles. The two players each claimed a 6-4 win before the Denver senior breezed through the breaker, 10-1.
 
For the second dual in a row, Coats took the No. 6 slot for Denver and again earned the win. After losing the first set, he answered with a break in the second set's opening game in what would be the only lead he needed on his way to a 6-4. He started the match tiebreak with a seven-point win streak that set him up for a comfortable 10-4 win.
 
Junior Raffaello Papajcik battled through the only match that played through a full third set and successfully completed the Denver sweep. The two players swapped 6-2 wins in the first two sets. Papajcik rallied back from a break down twice in the deciding set before breaking his opponent's serve for a third time in what would be the final game.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team closes the weekend against Northern Arizona on Sunday, February 2, at Denver Tennis Park.
 
Denver's Home for College Sports
Visit DenverPioneers.com for complete coverage of all 18 of DU's NCAA Division I sports
Like Denver Pioneers and Denver Men's Tennis on Facebook
Follow @DU_Pioneers and @DU_MTennis on Twitter
Follow @DenverPioneers and @DU_MTennis on Instagram