No. 67 Bronco Men's Tennis Bested By No. 6 Pepperdine In Competitive Match

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The No. 67 Bronco men's tennis team put up a valiant effort on Saturday afternoon, ultimately falling to the No. 6 Pepperdine Waves in a competitive match. The Broncos were looking to pull off an upset of the visiting Waves, but they came up short 4-2.

The Broncos will travel down south for two highly important matches next weekend. Santa Clara and No. 45 San Diego State will square off on Friday, April 5 at 3 pm. On Sunday, April 7 the Broncos will take on No. 37 University of San Diego at 2 pm in a WCC showdown.

Santa Clara is 13-7 overall, including 10-3 on its home courts. The squad has a 1-3 mark on the road and is 2-1 in neutral contests. The Broncos fell to 1-3 in conference matches.

In the matchup against Pepperdine, the teams decided to move up the match start time by two hours and play singles first due to the threat of poor weather. The Broncos gave it their all but were bested by a talented and experienced Pepperdine team.

No. 63 John Lamble had his hands full in the top spot, as he battled Sebastian Fanselow, ranked No. 10 in the country. Lamble and Fanselow played a tighter match than the score indicated, with many competitive rallies and long games. Fanselow prevailed 6-4, 6-1. At No. 2, Ilya Osintsev came up with some big shots but couldn't quite break through, as Pepperdine came out on top 6-4, 6-4.

Matt Kecki brought home one of the Bronco wins, topping No. 94 Alex Sarkissian 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Kecki kept his composure and took care of business throughout the three set dog-fight. The win was Kecki's 11^th of the season.

At No. 4, Tom Pham took on Francis Alcantara, ranked No. 70 nationally. Pham battled the entire match, but couldn't muster another heroic win after winning the deciding match against LMU last time out. Pham fell to 20-7 on the season while Alcantara improved to 16-4.

Tomasz Soltyka, playing at No. 5, came up with a tremendous win. Soltyka played his best match of the season for the 6-4, 6-4 victory, firing up the entire Bronco team in the process. Soltyka snapped his opponent's four match winning streak which included a win over No. 11 Oklahoma.

Eugene Muchynski put up a strong fight at No. 6, but Pepperdine came away with the 6-1, 6-3 win. The teams did not play the doubles portion as the match had already been decided.