March 7, 2006
Santa Clara, Calif. - A few days have passed since the Santa Clara tennis team had their 16-match home winning streak snapped by Cal Poly and according to head coach George Husack, his troops are ready to redeem themselves starting this Wednesday with a West Coast Conference match with heated rival and host San Francisco. Following that match will be another WCC showdown in Moraga, Calif. with Saint Mary's College, to be played on Sunday. Game times are set for noon on both days.
"We learned a lot from our Cal Poly match and I look forward to seeing how this week plays out. Conference matches and local rivalries are great motivators, as are experiences such as last Saturday," declared Husack.
San Francisco enters Wednesday's match with Santa Clara sporting an overall record of 3-7. USF last played a match on February 28, when BYU took a 4-2 decision. Leading the way for the Dons will be seniors Rafael Corazza and Fernando Rodriguez and junior Matthew Berry, along with newcomers Korbinian Kramer and Thong Tu. Peter Bartlett is in this head coach of the San Francisco program. The last time these two teams met, the Broncos came out with a 6-1 win, though Husack indicated that the match was much closer than the score would suggest.
"I expect this match to be tight just as our last match was here at home back in February. The final score may have indicated otherwise, but we're not expecting anything but a battle. It should be fun," said Husack.
Saint Mary's is currently on a three-game winning streak and last Saturday blanked visiting Swarthmore College 7-0 to up their season record to 4-4. Graduate student Julien Tizot has established himself as the top player for the Gaels and junior Adam Fauvre and sophomore Platonov has supplied depth in both singles and doubles line-up. In addition, SMC has counted on the play of freshmen Achim Christner and Alp Ozpinar to bolster play in the starting line-up. Michael Wayman is in his ninth season as the director of tennis at Saint Mary's College and since 1996
"The Gaels are riding a good streak of matches and competing well. They have a crafty team of players and it's going to be tough to play them in Moraga," noted Husack.