PORTLAND, Ore.—Senior Wade McDermott and junior Bridger Galyardt posted a win at third doubles, but Lewis & Clark College men's tennis fell 7-0 to UC Santa Cruz on Thursday evening at the LC Tennis Dome. 
 
THE BASICS 
 
UC Santa Cruz 7, Lewis & Clark 0
(Lewis & Clark 7-8) 
(UC Santa Cruz 6-8) 

HOW IT HAPPENED 
 
Lewis & Clark nearly won the doubles point and played competitively at several single spots, in their final non-conference match of the 2026 season. 
 
McDermott and Galyardt opened the match on a high note for Lewis & Clark. The duo cruised to a 6-1 win over Peter Liang and Adam Kahn at third doubles. 
 
The Banana Slugs responded with a win at second doubles. Gavin Sontag and Caden Wong defeated first year Kaden Sigurdsson and senior Spencer Loucks 6-3. 
 
The closest match of the day would come at first doubles. UC Santa Cruz's Benjamin Wang and Rocco Melendez barely slipped past junior Noah Sutin and senior Kai Wills 7-6 at first doubles to win the doubles point. Both teams held serve the entire match, until Santa Cruz won the final game. 
 
Wang made it 2-0 in favor of the visitors, when he defeated Sutin 6-4, 6-2 at first singles. 
 
The hosts pushed their lead to 3-0 at fourth singles. Hari Raghavan knocked off Galyardt 6-1, 6-1. 
 
Melendez added a fourth point for the visitors, when he posted a 6-3, 6-3 win over McDermott. 
 
Wills played the tightest singles set of the day for Lewis & Clark. After dropping the first set 6-1, he fell 7-6 (7-4) in the second set to Sontag at second singles. 
 
Wong defeated Loucks 6-2, 6-4 at fifth singles to push the lead to 6-0. In the final match of the day, Peter Liang bested junior Max Furman 6-4, 6-3. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS 

• Galyardt and McDermott played together in singles for the first time this season on Thursday. They are the ninth different River Otters pair to win a doubles match this season. 
• With his win on Thursday, Galyardt has won a career-high eight matches in a single-season. The junior is 8-5 this season. 
• Thursday's match was the first meeting between the two programs since at least 2007. 

WHO'S NEXT 
 
Lewis & Clark will host Whitworth University on Saturday at 11 a.m. The Pirates (8-2) currently sit second in the Northwest Conference standings, just one game ahead of Lewis & Clark (7-3).