Feb. 21, 2007
Up Next
The No. 73 Santa Clara Broncos play only one match this week, facing West Coast Conference foe, San Francisco, on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 2:30 p.m. PT at the Degheri Tennis Center. The Broncos will be looking for their sixth straight win and fifth straight at home. SCU finished 2-1 in three matches against San Francisco last year.
Last Week
Santa Clara had three matches last weekend at home and swept Gonzaga, Oregon and UC Santa Barbara to push its win streak to five matches. The Broncos began the weekend with a 6-1 win over Gonzaga on Feb. 16, winning the doubles point and then sweeping four singles matches in straight sets. Brian Brogan came back from a set down to pull out a tough three-setter for the Broncos other singles win. The next day, SCU faced No. 75 Oregon in an afternoon match at the Degheri Tennis Center. Once again, the Broncos captured the doubles point to gain momentum heading into singles. Jan Macek and Bobby Rasmussen clinched the doubles point with an 8-4 win in the deciding match. In singles, Jay Wong, Bobby Rasmussen and Tommy Hicks breezed to straight set wins, while Brogan once again battled through a tight match to pull out a victory in a super-tiebreaker. SCU won the dual match 5-2. George Husack's squad finished the weekend on President's Day on Feb. 19 against UC Santa Barbara. After winning the doubles point for the third time on the weekend, SCU won the first four singles matches to get out to a 5-0 lead before beating the Gauchos 6-1. Wong, Rasmussen, Blane Shields, Hicks and Macek won their singles matches.
Notes:
Win Streak
Santa Clara has won five straight matches following its 6-1 win over UC Santa Barbara on Monday. The Broncos last five-game win streak occurred during the 2005 season when SCU won five in a row from March 4-April 2, defeating Hawai'i, Oregon, Eastern Washington, New Orleans and Denver. The Broncos have not won six in a row since a 12-game winning streak from March 2-April 7, 2002.
Broncos Remain No. 73
Despite their five-match winning streak, the Broncos remained No. 73 in this week's FILA Rankings. Not since 2002 has the men's tennis program achieved a national ranking when they were No. 55 in the nation.
Macek/Rasmussen and McQuaid/Shields Moving Up Record Books
The doubles teams of Jan Macek/Bobby Rasmussen and Kevin McQuaid/Blane Shields are moving up the record books in career doubles victories. McQuaid and Shields won a school record 20 matches last year to move to No. 4 all-time in doubles wins. The pair has won five matches this year and are now tied with Tony Del Rosario and Frank Seitz for third all-time with 25 wins. Macek and Rasmussen started the year with 18 career wins together and have burst out of the gate this spring, posting a 13-2 record so far to move into sole possession of second place all-time with 31 wins. Macek and Rasmussen are still 16 wins away from the all-time leaders, Marcell Hlousek and Jeremy Testwuide, who won 47 matches together at SCU.
Rasmussen Aiming For Top-10 In Singles
Senior Bobby Rasmussen has gotten off to a fantastic start to the spring season in singles, posting a 9-4 record to move his career singles record to 54-48. He is now within two victories of catching Marcel Hlousek for eighth all-time in career singles wins.
Wong Super Frosh
Freshmen Jay Wong continues to have an outstanding first season on the Mission Campus. The San Jose native has won seven singles matches in a row to push his record to 21-6 on the year. He is now tied for seventh all-time in single-season singles wins. The all-time record for wins in a season is 30, accomplished by Francisco Zepponi when he posted a 30-8 record in 2002. Wong's .778 winning percentage is currently second all-time behind Zepponi's .789 winning percentage in 2002.
Bronco Firsts
The Santa Clara men's tennis team has achieved a number of notable firsts this season on the courts. The team defeated UC Irvine for the first time in program history on Feb. 4, earning a 6-1 win. The team's win over the University of Arizona on Feb. 10 contained a pair of firsts. The Broncos had never beaten Arizona in the past and they had not beaten a Pac-10 team on the road. However, SCU accomplished both tasks with its 4-3 victory.
Five in Double Figures
The Broncos already have five singles players with double digit win totals for this season. Jay Wong leads the way with 21 wins, while Brian Brogan and Bobby Rasmussen both have 12 wins. Tommy Hicks has 11 wins, while Blane Shields has notched 10 victories, including three straight wins in dual matches.
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. San Francisco
Santa Clara played three matches against the San Francisco Dons in 2006, winning two and losing the final match in the West Coast Conference tournament. SCU cruised to a 6-1 victory on Feb. 15, winning the doubles point and then getting singles wins from Jan Macek, Brian Brogan, Tommy Hicks, A.J. Kerin and Blane Shields. In the rematch on March 8, the Broncos won 5-2, again winning the doubles point to start things off. Macek, Kevin McQuaid, Shields and Hicks then won singles matches to finish off a regular season sweep of USF. However, the Dons had the last laugh in 2006, defeating the Broncos 4-1 in the WCC Tournament on April 23. USF won doubles and then went up 2-0 in the match following a loss by Bobby Rasmussen in singles. Hicks and Macek then lost their matches to give USF the win. Kerin won his match, but it was not enough for the Broncos.
Scouting the Opposition
San Francisco owns a 4-2 record this year coming into Thursday's match against the Broncos after falling 4-3 to No. 67 Saint Mary's on Feb. 19. USF opened the season with a 5-2 loss at Brigham Young, before winning four straight matches. The Dons defeated Northern Arizona (6-1), Loyola Marymount (7-0), No. 73 Hawai'i (4-3) and Gonzaga (6-1) before the loss to Saint Mary's. San Francisco moved into the rankings this week in a tie at No. 73.
Hicks 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. Tommy Hicks earned the Grinder of the Week after Monday's match against UC Santa Barbara. He won three matches over the weekend in straight sets, including two wins at No. 6 and one win at No. 5.
Ranked Foes
SCU has already played eight ranked opponents this season, Boise State (25), California (18), Pepperdine (9), UC Irvine (74), Arizona State (57), Arizona (72), Hawai'i (73) and Oregon (75). Those rankings were at the time of the match. SCU will play its ninth ranked opponent on Feb. 22, No. 73 San Francisco. The Broncos played only 10 ranked opponents all of last season.
