Feb. 8, 2007
Up Next
The Santa Clara Broncos travel to Arizona to face two ranked teams on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, Feb. 9, the Broncos will face off against Arizona State, who are currently No. 57 in the college tennis rankings. The match begins at 2:00 p.m. PT, and it will be the second time SCU will face Arizona State this season; the prior meeting was in San Diego at the Aztec Invitational. The next day the Broncos will face No. 72 in the nation, the University of Arizona at 1:00 p.m. PT.
Last Week
Santa Clara faced two ranked opponents in their Southern California trip. On Feb. 3, the Broncos were defeated by now No. 10 Pepperdine University 7-0. Bronco players Jay Wong, Robert Gallman and Bobby Rasmussen battled hard against the Waves in their single matches, pushing them all to three sets, but all suffering defeat. As for doubles, this was the first time all season that the Broncos were swept in their matches. Following the loss to Pepperdine, the Broncos defeated UC Irvine 6-1 on Feb. 4, who was ranked No. 74 in the nation prior to the match. This was the Broncos first win against a ranked opponent. Brian Brogan, Robert Gallman, Jay Wong and Bobby Rasmussen all won their singles matches against the Anteaters. Seeing his first singles action, junior Blane Shields playing in at No. 6 won his match 6-2, 7-5 against Alex Sundling. In doubles Brian Brogan/Robert Gallman continued to see success, by defeating UCI Shimpei Suzuki/Zac Tsai 8-6, as well as Jan Macek/Bobby Rasmussen defeating UCI Andrei Radulescu/Alex Sundling 8-4.
Notes
Brogan Wins SAP Open Pre-Qualifying Tournament
Santa Clara University sophomore tennis player Brian Brogan won five matches over three days to reach the final of the SAP Open pre-qualifying tournament and qualify for the main qualifying draw for the annual ATP event. The SAP Open, an ATP tour event, takes place from Feb. 12-18 at HP Pavilion. The qualifying draw takes place at the Courtside Club in Los Gatos, Brogan's home club, on Saturday, Feb. 10 and Sunday, Feb. 11. If Brogan can get back in time from the Broncos dual match Saturday morning against Arizona, he will participate in qualifying. He would need to win three matches in qualifying to earn a spot in the main SAP Open field. On Monday, Feb. 5 Brogan took a midterm exam and then headed directly to the pre-qualifying tournament in Sunnyvale to begin play. He swept to two convincing wins, 6-0, 6-0 and 6-1, 6-1 to earn a spot in the third round against the tournament's No. 6 seed, Shibu Lal. After defeating Lal in a two-hour match on Tuesday morning, Brogan faced No. 2 seed Timour Dick in the afternoon in the quarterfinals. The match went back and forth with each player winning a set 7-5. Brogan took control in the third set and closed out Dick 6-4 in the third to win the match in three hours and 40 minutes. Brogan then won his semifinal match against Shane Templeman 6-2, 6-4 to book his ticket to the main qualifying draw. The pre-qualifying tournament finalists were each guaranteed a spot in the qualifying tournament. With his place secured Brogan then retired against Brad Weston in the final so that he had energy left for the Broncos trip this weekend to play Arizona State and Arizona.
Broncos Receive National Ranking
Not since 2002 has the men's tennis program achieved a national ranking when they were No. 55 in the nation. Currently the Broncos are No. 75 in the country, and are looking to move up in rankings the rest of the spring 2007 season.
Shields Playing in at No. 6 in Singles
Junior Blane Shields saw his first singles action of the season against UC Irvine on Feb. 4. Shields won his first set 6-2, and his second set 7-5 after initially falling down 5-0.
Brogan vs. Brogan
On Friday Feb. 9, Brian Brogan and the Broncos will face his younger brother, Patrick Brogan's Arizona State squad for the second time this season. The last time the Broncos faced Arizona State, Bronco sophomore Tommy Hicks defeated Patrick 6-3, 6-4 at the Aztec Invitational in San Diego.
Live Stats
Bronco tennis fans can now follow all home matches live on SantaClaraBroncos.com with live scoring for all matches. Fans can find the link to live scoring on the men's tennis schedule page or on the men's tennis home page under Bronco Bits. To view live scoring, fans must download Java Run Time software from Sun Microsystems, a free web download at java.com.
History vs. Arizona State/University of Arizona
Since 2001, the Broncos have been defeated by both Arizona State and the University of Arizona in head-to-head matches. The last time the Broncos faced Arizona State at the Aztec Invitational they were very successful winning five of their six singles matches, and one of their three doubles matches; however the last head-to-head match was in 2004 where they were defeated 5-2. As for the University of Arizona, the last meeting was in 2003 when the Broncos lost 6-1.
Scouting the Opposition
Arizona State is No. 57 in the nation entering Friday's match, and currently they boast an undefeated record of 4-0. They are coming off a 4-3 win against USF. As for the University of Arizona currently have a record of 1-3, and are No. 72 in the country. After losing their last three matches, one of which was against fellow WCC rival and No. 59 in the nation Saint Mary's 4-1, the Wildcats are looking for some redemption against the Broncos.
Macek Awarded "Grinder of the Week"
The "Grinder of the Week" is a weekly award for the Bronco men's tennis team, recognizing an individual player demonstrating the ability to go above and beyond in both practice and competition. This week's recipient is Jan Macek who plays in at No. 1 in singles, and has played consistently well against his top-ranked competition.
Ranked Foes
After facing No. 10 Pepperdine and No. 74 UC Irvine last week, the Broncos play seven more opponents currently ranked in the top-75 in the FILA rankings. SCU plays Arizona State (57), Arizona (72), Hawai'i (71), UC Santa Barbara (73), Saint Mary's (59), Cal Poly (74) and Stanford (27).
