Ojai, CA – The Occidental Men's and Women's Tennis Teams competed in the 122^nd annual Ojai Tennis Tournament this past weekend in Ojai, CA. The Ojai Tournament is one of the most prestigious tennis tournaments on the West Coast and includes various tournament draws including Division III Men's and Women's Singles draws as well as the Pac-12 Championships.

Multiple Occidental student-athletes picked up big wins over the weekend highlighted by Junior Brett Miller's 2^nd place finish in the Men's Singles draw and First-Years Elina Shalaev and Sebaga Kombo's 2^nd place finish in the Women's Doubles draw.  Miller, coming into the tournament as the number seven seed, won four consecutive matches to earn his spot in the final. In the quarterfinals, he came back from a set down to defeat Whittier's Julius Clasen 3-6,6-3,6-3. He followed that up just an hour later with a hard fought 6-4,6-2 win in the semifinals over Redlands' Omar Khayat. In the championship match the following day, Miller competed in front of a stadium crowd against Whittier's Yash Nagdev. This was a rematch of when Miller defeated Nagdev 7-6 in the third set to clinch the Occidental win over Whittier on April 9^th. This time around, Nagdev defeated Miller 6-3,7-5 in a back and forth battle to claim the Ojai title.

In the Women's Doubles draw, Shalaev and Kombo received a bye in the first round before winning a tightly contested quarterfinal match versus Madison Ford and Kylee Limpias of Cal Lutheran 8-7(4). In the semi-finals, Kombo and Shalaev came out firing against Kiana Brady and Christine O'Biren of Redlands and never looked back, taking an 8-4 victory to earn a spot in the finals. In the final, Shalaev and Kombo faced a formidable team in Mina Ahmadi and Mari Carmen Bufkin of Cal Lutheran. Competing in front of a stadium crowd, Bufkin and Ahmadi were able to earn a key break of serve late in the first set to take it 6-4 before pulling away in the second set to win the match 6-4,6-2. It was an impressive showing for the young Tigers Shalaev and Kombo who have a bright future ahead.

Other highlights from the weekend include Shalaev making a run to the women's singles semifinals and Kombo making it to the quarterfinals. Seniors Alexis Matabuena and Mathilde Depery both won a round of singles and paired up to defeat Whittier's top doubles team 8-7 (4) in the first round of doubles. Julia Chun also made a run to the consolation finals after losing her first round match. In the men's singles draw, both Dennis Isak and Ben Burrows won three set singles matches in the first round and Isak teamed up with Miller to make the second round of doubles.

This was the final competition of the year for the Occidental teams and they are looking forward to next year with the majority of their players returning.