POMONA, Calif. - Senior Brent Molden and sophomore Eric Rubens won the ITA Small College West Regional Doubles Championship on Saturday at Cal Poly Pomona. The duo defeated the team from BYU Hawaii by a score of 9-7.
Molden and Rubens, the top-seeded team in the tournament, advanced to the finals with a convincing 8-2 victory over Andrew Liang and Andy Muesse of Sonoma State on Friday afternoon. In the other semifinal match, the 2nd-seeded team of Junyoung Kim and Leon So'Onalole of BYU Hawaii downed Erik Oijala and Steven Oechel to set up its meeting with Molden and Rubens.
The victory marks the second year in a row that a Tritons' doubles team won the ITA West Region title. Last year Molden teamed with former Triton Bryan Swatt to win the doubles crown in 2004 when UCSD hosted the event.
Molden and Rubens advance to the ITA National Small College Championships, which will be held at Florida Gulf Coast University on Oct. 13-16. These championships are the only national tournaments for singles and doubles at the NCAA Division II level. The regional tournaments serve as the qualifying tournaments.
