No. 60 Men's Tennis Tops Pacific 4-0 on Senior Day; John Lamble’s 80th Career Win Clinches Match

No. 60 Men's Tennis Tops Pacific 4-0 on Senior Day; John Lamble’s 80th Career Win Clinches Match

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – On a beautiful day at the Degheri Tennis Center, the No. 60 SCU men's tennis team played excellent tennis en route to a 4-0 victory over Pacific on Senior Day. The Broncos made an impressive comeback to win the doubles point and they kept rolling in singles to finish the regular season strongly. In the last home match of his career, Bronco senior John Lamble earned the clinching victory for his 80th career singles win.

"I liked the way the team really fought back after being down in doubles," said Bronco head coach Derek Mills. "We showed a lot of character by staying with it and not giving up, and being able to finish on the big points. It was great to see John Lamble clinch the match in the last home match of his career. It was great to get the win heading into the conference tournament next week."

The Broncos will travel to San Diego next week to compete in the West Coast Conference Tournament. Santa Clara is the No. 4 seed in the tournament, following No. 1 San Diego, Pepperdine, and Portland. There are 10 teams in the conference.

Santa Clara earned its 15th victory against Pacific and is 15-6 overall. The team is 5-4 in WCC play. The Broncos finished the season with a 12-2 home record, and they are 2-4 on the road and 1-0 at neutral sites.

On Saturday, the Broncos took care of business against Pacific behind two key comebacks in doubles and three decisive singles performances.

Pacific struck first in a tight match at No. 3, coming away with an 8-6 win. The Broncos were down in the other two matches as well, but found a way to fight back.

In the No. 1 position, John Lamble and Ilya Osintsev broke Pacific's serve to even up their match at 6-6. They went on to win the tiebreaker in a close finish, tying the doubles matchups at 1-1.

The duo finished the regular season with a phenomenal 14-2 dual match mark. Lamble and Osintsev have 36 total victories across their Santa Clara doubles career together, which is the second-most victories by one team in program history.

As the No. 1 doubles contest was wrapping up, the Bronco No. 2 pair of Ashot Khacharyan and Mikheil Khmiadashvili was busy making a comeback of its own. Khacharyan and Khmiadashvili successfully came from behind to break Pacific's serve at 6-7, moving the match into a tiebreaker. With the doubles point on the line, the two underclassman kept their cool and earned the win, sending the Bronco team and its supporters into celebration.

With one win under its belt, Santa Clara went to work in singles. Australian Sam Bertram was the first to finish, knocking off his opponent 6-3, 6-2. The junior transfer's convincing victory improved his overall season record to 12-8.

Khacharyan secured the third Bronco win, steamrolling his opponent 6-3, 6-2. The righty from Sochi, Russia sports a strong 14-6 record in his sophomore campaign.

Lamble picked up the clinching victory, a fitting end for the senior who has had one of the best careers in program history. In 2014, the Saratoga, Calif. native is 14-1 in dual matches and 20-4 including the fall. On Saturday, he earned the 80th win of his career, and has a remarkable record of 80-35. He is second in all-time singles wins behind former teammate Tom Pham, who went 89-28.

With the result determined, the matches for Osintsev, Khmiadashvili and Tjuatjadarma did not finish.

Check back on SantaClaraBroncos.com for more on the upcoming West Coast Conference Tournamentch. Stay up to date with Santa Clara men's tennis on Facebook and Twitter @SCUmtennis. Go Broncos!

 

 Position

 Santa Clara University

 University of the Pacific (California)

 Winner

 Score

 #1 Singles

 John Lamble

 Sem Verbeek

 Santa Clara University

 6-2, 6-4

 #2 Singles

 #117 Ilya Osintsev

 Denis Stolyarov

 Unfinished

 7-6, 4-3

 #3 Singles

 Ashot Khacharyan

 Miguel Diaz

 Santa Clara University

 6-3, 6-2

 #4 Singles

 Mikheil Khmiadashvili

 Daniel Alameh

 Unfinished

 4-6, 5-6

 #5 Singles

 Michael Tjuatjadarma

 Alex Hamilton

 Unfinished

 3-6, 6-3,2-1

 #6 Singles

 Sam Bertram

 Erik Cederwall

 Santa Clara University

 6-3, 6-2

 #1 Doubles

 Ilya Osintsev 
 John Lamble

 Marlon Brand 
 Daniel Alameh

 Santa Clara University

 8-7

 #2 Doubles

 Ashot Khacharyan 
 Mikheil Khmiadashvili

 Denis Stolyarov 
 Sem Verbeek

 Santa Clara University

 8-7

 #3 Doubles

 Michael Tjuatjadarma 
 Sam Bertram

 Miguel Diaz 
 Alex Hamilton

 University of the Pacific (California)

 8-6