Freshman Parker Chang returns a serve on Saturday against Illinois Wesleyan University. Wash. U. swept IWU 9-0. Chang won both singles and doubles in straight sets.

After a spring break trip to California in which the team went 2-3, the No. 11 Bears shut out a visitor for the second straight weekend as they swept Illinois Wesleyan University 9-0 on Saturday afternoon at the Tao Tennis Center.

The Bears didn’t surrender a single set for the second weekend in a row across any of the day’s nine matches.

“One of our goals is, whether we’re playing a ranked team or not, to treat them the same. I definitely saw good intensity and all of that,” head coach Roger Follmer said. “The last two weeks we’ve really amped up our conditioning. I think they sensed from my demeanor that I was taking it very seriously, and I’m glad they were taking it seriously as well.”

All three doubles pairings won their matches on Saturday: junior Adam Putterman and freshman Ross Putterman at top doubles (8-4), junior Kareem Farah and freshman Parker Chang at No. 2 doubles (8-5), and freshman Kevin Chu and sophomore Max Franklin at No. 3 doubles (8-3).

Getting off to a strong start in doubles is something that the Bears have worked on constantly over the years, and it appears those efforts have begun to pay off: Wash. U. has emerged from doubles with a lead in five of its last six contests.

“That was our problem at indoors. We came out a little flat, a little slow in doubles, and ever since then that kind of opened our eyes and forced us to work on it a little more,” Franklin said.

The six singles matches went even better for the Bears, who swept all six matches and didn’t allow any IWU player to win more than three games in any set. Adam Putterman won the top match (6-1, 6-3), junior Gary Parizher took second singles (6-1, 6-2), Ross Putterman won his match (6-2, 6-2) at third singles, Farah had a clean sweep at No. 4 singles (6-0, 6-0), Chang took fifth singles easily (6-2, 6-1), and sophomore Tim Noack completed the sweep with a 6-2, 6-1 win in No. 6 singles.

“Once we swept doubles, the momentum stayed through to the singles, and we ended up winning. It was [maybe] the fastest match I’ve ever been a part of,” Franklin said. “I think our mindset from the beginning was just to not let up in singles.”

A few changes to the lineup led the Bears to success for the past two weekends—success that was especially welcome after their tough spring break trip.

“You’ve got to see different guys in different spots to figure out who’s best in the lineup, and I think spring break and playing all those matches, a lot of them didn’t go our way, but playing tough matches—not 9-0 or 0-9 matches, but 6-3, 5-4 wins and losses … you find out quickly who belongs and who doesn’t,” Follmer said.

Facing four ranked teams and going 1-3 against them made them well aware of the intensity of their competition.

“Every team is beatable,” Franklin said on what the team learned in California. “We’re beatable as well. But if we do what we do and take care of everything, play well in doubles, everything will work itself out. If we play like we’re supposed to play and lose, then that’s just how it goes, but hopefully if we play how we can, everything can and should work out.”

The Bears are also enjoying a return to success seen in previous years; after breaking their four-year home winning streak last season, they have now started up a new streak with 13 straight wins at home.

“We actually had some good support from friends, which is always nice, and the weather’s been great,” Franklin said. “It was nice to get the winning streak back going, and it definitely gives us some confidence playing at home.”

Wash. U. will be back on the Tao courts on Friday at 3 p.m. as they face McKendree University for the second time this season. The Bears defeated McKendree 9-0 on Feb. 3.

With less than a month before UAA championships, Follmer is stressing players focus not only on what happens on the court but what happens off of it as well.

“You have to pay attention to everything. Not just for when you’re on the court for those two hours but for those other 22 hours. That really dictates how successful you’re going to be,” Follmer said.