SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Coming off an opening weekend full of promise, the Santa Clara men's tennis team is finishing up its preparation and preparing for this weekend's ITA Regionals event. Beginning this Friday, the Broncos will travel to Palo Alto, Calif. to compete in singles and doubles action against competition from across the Northwest Region.
Ilya Osintsev, Sam Bertram and Ashot Khacharyan will all make the short trip to Stanford University to participate in the action.
Osintsev enters as the No. 9 seeded player in the singles bracket. In his opening round matchup scheduled for 10 a.m. on Friday, the lefty will do battle with Fresno State's Euan McIntosh. The sophomore Bulldog holds a 6-4 record on the fall season to date, recently taking down Nikolas Ramadan from No. 3 University of California, Los Angeles in his last victory.
Bertram will take the courts at 2:30 p.m. on Friday when he faces off against the University of California, Berkeley's Jordan Smith. The 6-foot-7-inch junior from Cal is 3-1 on the season, recently coming off a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Grand Canyon University's Gregoire Balenci at the UCSB Classic last week.
Khacharyan, coming in as the No. 17 seeded participant in this upcoming weekend's competition, will take on Sacramento State's Kasparas Zemaitelis at 3:30 p.m. on Friday. Zemaitelis, a 6-foot-5-inch freshman, is 2-2 on the year. In his most recent match, Zemaitelis came out with a 7-6, 4-6, 11-9 victory over Saint Mary's Samuel Bloore in a voluntary consolation match at the University of California, Davis Aggie Invitational.
Santa Clara will also field one new doubles tandem this weekend. Osintsev and Bertram will come together for the first time in their Bronco careers.
The newly assembled tandem, seeded No. 9 in the tournament, will take on Eastern Washington University's newly paired duo of Rendell Burghart and Luke Ness at 8:30 a.m. on Friday.
The first two opening rounds of action in singles and doubles will commence on Friday, followed by two more rounds on Saturday, quarterfinal play on Sunday, semifinal action on Monday and the championship matches scheduled for Tuesday.
All three Broncos competing this week opened up their respective fall campaigns last weekend. Ostinsev, playing at the Mount Tam Invitational, advanced to the quarterfinals and picked up his first two singles wins of the season in the process. The 6-foot-4-inch senior put forth gritty performances in both of his three set victories.
Khacharyan, joining Osintsev at the Mount Tam Invitational, cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 victory in his opening match of the 2014-15 season before eventually being edged out in the quarterfinals. The junior will look to build on his early season momentum when he takes the courts on Friday.
Bertram, a second year transfer player for Santa Clara, will also look to improve on his game this weekend. After receiving a first round by at the Battle In The Bay Classic last weekend, the senior came away with a three set victory over Cal Poly's Corey Pang before falling to the tournament's No. 7 seed, Tom Fawcett from Stanford in the round of 16.
The tournament at Stanford this weekend is one of several events that have already played out or are set to take place under the USTA/ITA Regional Championships competition. Twelve regions make up the ITA in Division I play. The Broncos will be competing in the Northwest Region.
