By Rico Chow, '12

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The WCC championship runner-up, the Santa Clara men's tennis team, will begin its new season at the Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northwest Regional Championships at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium at Stanford University. The tournament will be held Fri., Oct. 15 - Tues., Oct. 19.

Stanford was a 2010 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 participant team and is ranked No. 9 in the latest ranking.

In addition to the Broncos, this event will showcase players from the following ITA Northwest Region schools: No. 9 Stanford, No. 18 California, Eastern Washington, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon, Pacific, Portland, Portland State, Sacramento State, Saint Mary's, San Francisco, San Jose State, UC Davis, No. 28 Washington and Washington State.

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SCHEDULE

Men's Singles Round of 128

• SCU Engene Muchynski vs. UW Skyler Tateishi Fri. 9AM
• SCU Nicholas Vinel vs. DAV Connor Coates Fri. 9AM
• SCU John Lamble vs. GON Muzeen Ismath Fri. 9AM
• SCU Kyle Dandan (Seeded) vs. OR Aaron Clissold Fri. 10:45AM
• SCU Keith Kamono vs. DAV Nick Lopez Fri. 12PM
• SCU Tom Pham vs. ST Daniel Ho Fri. 12:15PM
• SCU Maxime Armengaud vs. DAV Josh Albert Fri. 12:45PM

Men's Doubles Round of 64

• SCU Kyle Dandan & Nico Vinel (seeded) vs.
  OR DncnMcDonaldKorth & Doug Mayeda               Sat. 9AM
• SCU John Lamble & Maxime Armengaud vs.
  OR Jose Izquierdo & Sho Higuchi                          Sat. 9AM
• SCU Eugene Muchynski & Tom Pham vs.
  CAL Carlos Cueto & Jonathan Dahan (seeded)       Sat. 10:15AM
  

BRIGHT LEADING RETURNERS

Kyle Dandan – The No. 1 player last year is seeded in this tournament. He finished the season at 13-11 overall and 4-1 in WCC dual matches. He also earned All-WCC Second Team Singles honors and was an All NCAA Honorable Mention player.

Tom Pham – An ALL-WCC Honorable Mention Singles honors last year as a freshman.  He finished season with team best 21-9 overall singles record and 6-1 in WCC contests.

Nicholas Vinel – The No. 1 Santa Clara doubles team with Kyle Dandan last season and they are seeded in doubles in this tournament. He earned 17-8 overall singles record and 5-1 in WCC contests last year.

Eugene Muchynski – In second year as a Bronco, he will play the first match of the season for the Broncos. He ended the season with 14-5 overall singles record last season. 

FRESH NEWCOMING PLAYERS

Maxime Armengaud – A junior transfer from Indiana, who has played in similar tournament before, is expected to shine in this tournament with his experience.

John Lamble – A blue chip freshman recruit of Santa Clara Broncos will have debut game against our WCC rival, Gonzaga player. Our hope in him is high in this tournament.

Keith Kamono – A super international freshman player, a Japanese born in United Kingdom, will have the first game of the match as a Bronco family in this tournament.

SCU HEAD COACH DEREK MILLS & SANTA CLARA BRONCOS

Derek Mills has done a remarkable job as head coach of the Santa Clara men's tennis program. He enters his fourth season at Santa Clara, which will be his 19 year of coaching at the youth and collegiate levels. Mills led the Broncos to a record-setting campaign in the spring of 2010, achieving an all-time high national ranking of No. 43 by the ITA. The Broncos maintained a national ranking for a school-record 14 straight weeks and reached the West Coast Conference championship match for only the second time in program history. In addition to those team accolades, five Broncos received All-WCC honors. The Broncos was No. 5 in the region last year just behind Stanford, Cal, Fresno State and University of Washington. With four returning players and three new players added to the team, the Broncos is looking bright for this season.

QUOTABLE FROM DEREK MILLS

Goals for This Season

"The goal for this year is, obviously, to be in NCAA Tournament and that is what we play for. We found out last year that it is a very realistic goal. Last year, we just missed it but I think the guys really believe that we can do it this year. Now I think the guys see it as all realistic and they are putting huge amount of time and effort into the practice. Our goals are to get in the NCAA Tournament and win the conference championship."

How Does the Men's Team Look So Far?

"As a coaching staff, we have been very impressed by our players' work ethic, especially with the new guys. They have been coming and maybe even outworked their older guys, which is always a good thing. They seem very sincere about getting better and trying to contribute in the team."

About the Upcoming ITA Regional Tournament…

"We are all, as a team, really excited to get started. We have been practicing with each other for the last three weeks and the guys are looking for somebody else's faces to be play on the other side of the net."