The No. 2 Washington University men’s tennis team showed that it deserved its national ranking with convincing sweeps over No. 25 Coe College and Rhodes College on Saturday.

The Bears slammed through Coe College’s lineup, sweeping all singles and doubles matches.

Wash. U. got warmed up as juniors Charlie Cutler and Chris Hoeland dominated in first doubles, posting an 8-3 score.

Junior Travis Bowman and sophomore John Watts teamed up in second doubles, resulting in a resounding 8-1 victory.

“It’s always good to play matches where you dominate, because it helps build your confidence,” Cutler said.

Freshmen Max Woods and Isaac Stein followed up in third doubles with an 8-1 victory.

“[The freshmen] are bringing some good energy and a lot of fight,” Hoeland said.

Wash. U. then proceeded to dominate the singles matches with Watts, Cutler, Woods, Hoeland and Stein picking up victories in first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth singles respectively. Sophomore Danny Levy kept the winning streak going, winning the third singles match.

“[The freshmen] are as good as anyone in the country at their positions,” Cutler said.

Saturday’s second match against Rhodes College ended similarly to the Coe College match, culminating with another 9-0 victory.

The Bears did not drop a single set to Rhodes, though some of the matches were close.

The teams of Stein/Woods and Nirmal Choradia/Slavi Fildish won at second and third doubles 8-5, and junior Mark Partridge took a close first set in fourth singles by winning a tiebreaker 7-4 before winning the second set 6-0.

Cutler, Levy, Stein, Choradia and junior Eric Pollak breezed through first, second, third, fifth and sixth singles, respectively, and Bowman/Watts took first doubles rather easily, winning by a score of 8-3.

The Red and Green have won the last five matches. “It’s good to get off to a good outdoor season,” Hoeland said.

Wash. U. had to play both matches this weekend indoors due to the bad weather.

“We’ve been looking forward to the sun,” Cutler said.

The No. 2 Bears return to action Tuesday at home against Maryville University before away matches against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville on Friday and Drury University on Saturday as they prepare for UAA conference championships.

“We’d love to win our first conference championship ever,” Cutler said.

“We’re doing fitness in the mornings,” Hoeland added. “It doesn’t matter how good our shots are if we can’t stay out on the court.”

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