SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara men's tennis team will wrap up its fall season at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Northwest Regional Championships. John Lamble, Ilya Osintsev and Sam Bertram will be competing in this weekend's event. The tournament will run from Oct. 18-22 in Moraga, Calif.
Draws
Lamble received a bye into the second round of the men's singles draw. Lamble, the tournament's No. 3 seed, will face the winner of Sacramento State's Tom Miller and Portland's Ethan Ogard.
Osintsev will face Gonzaga's Hayden Smith in the first round of the men's singles draw. Osintsev, the tournament's 17th seed, looks to build on his strong start to the fall season.
Bertram, a transfer from Fresno City College, will face Portland State's Nate Chart in the first round. It will be Bertram's second tournament as a Bronco.
Lamble and Osintsev received a bye into the second round of the men's doubles draw. Seeded No. 2, they will face the winner of Gonzaga's Joey Brandt and Nick Kamisar against Saint Mary's Sam Bloore and Thomas Hunt.
Ashot Khacharyan was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to injury.
Fall Season So Far
Lamble, who is the No. 64 singles player in the nation, brings a 4-2 record into this weekend's action. He made his fall debut at the ITA All-American Championships where he reached the third round of the qualifying draw. Lamble defeated Mississippi's Stefan Lindmark 6-3, 6-1 in a strong showing and also topped his first-round opponent 6-3, 7-6 (3).
Last weekend, the Bronco senior played well at the Battle in the Bay Classic hosted by USF. After receiving a bye and crushing his Pacific opponent 6-0, 6-0, Lamble knocked off Gregory Bayane from UC Berkeley 6-2, 6-3. In a three-set battle, Lamble was bested by Thorsten Bertsch, the seventh seed, from San Diego State.
At the Battle in the Bay Classic, Osintsev reached the singles quarterfinals in a positive start to his junior campaign. Osintsev wasted no time getting off to a quick start, winning 6-4, 6-0 over Patrick Hall of USD in the first round. The Broncos' No. 2 singles player then defeated Max de Vroome 6-4, 6-4. It was a big win over the USC Trojan who went 27-12 last season and won all three matches played in the NCAA Tournament.
In the third round, the lefty walloped his Cal opponent, Filip Bergevi, in 6-1, 6-0 drubbing. The Russian advanced to the quarterfinals and although his run ended there, it was a strong debut for Osintsev.
Lamble and Osintsev reached the doubles quarterfinals at USF as well. The duo, seeded fourth, topped Stanford's Daniel Ho and Anthony Tsodikov, 8-4, after receiving a first-round bye. In a close contest, they ended up falling to Brendan McClain and Garrett Patton of Boise State 8-7 (2). The Bronco pair was All-WCC and went 10-6 at No. 1 last season, and finished the year with five straight wins.
Bertram made his Bronco debut at the UC Davis invitational in October. The Aussie defeated Sacramento State's Ayman Abdulwahab 6-4, 6-3 and topped Mathias Olsen of St. Mary's 6-2, 6-3 to secure his place in the semifinals of his draw. Bertram came up short in straight sets but made a promising singles debut.
Bertram teamed with Khacharyan and the duo reached the semifinals of their draw. They came up with an 8-4 win over Cal's Chase Melton and Wyatt Houghton, the No. 3 seeded team. In their second contest, Khacharyan and Bertram bested Fresno State's Ethan Lopez and Nikolas Papic by a 8-4 final. In the semifinals, they fell 8-4 to Oregon's Kevin Farin and Robin Cambier, the No. 2 seed.
Transfer Addition
After playing two years of college tennis at Fresno City College, Sam Bertram has been a nice addition for the Broncos this fall. While at Fresno City College, Bertram helped the team win state titles in both his freshman and sophomore years. He also won the state title in singles and was the runner-up in doubles, and was nationally ranked both seasons.
New Assistant Coach
The Broncos recently welcomed a new assistant coach, Aaron Paajanen. Paajanen joins the Santa Clara staff after spending the past four years as an assistant at WCC-rival Loyola Marymount. He was in the USTA Top-500 rankings in 2007-08 and recorded wins over ATP ranked players. He was a 2003-04 team captain at Point Loma Nazarene University where he was a student-athlete from 2002-04.
Go Broncos!