SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Pitted against the No. 1 ranked and defending champions from the University of Southern California, the Santa Clara men's tennis team fell 4-0 to the Trojans in the championship match of the ITA Kick-Off on Saturday evening.
Santa Clara's first loss of the season puts the squad at 3-1 early on in the 2015 campaign.
The Broncos will get back to action next Saturday when they host the Aggies from the University of California, Davis at 12pm.
Opening up the match, USC gained an early advantage with a doubles win at the No. 2 spot. Over on Court 1, the No. 1 nationally ranked doubles pairing of Yannick Hanfmann and Robert Quiroz downed Santa Clara' duo of Ilya Osintsev and Ashot Khacharyan to seal the doubles point for USC and put the Trojans out in front early.
In singles, a host of nationally ranked Trojans proved to be too much to handle for Santa Clara in the end. A straight set win by Nick Crystal, the No. 58 singles player in the country, in the No. 6 position extended USC's lead over the Broncos. No. 8 Jonny Wang won 6-1, 6-1 over Mikheil Khmiadashvili at the No. 3 position. With one more singles victory needed to clinch the match, Eric Johnson defeated Sebastien Mathieu 6-3, 6-2 to capture the victory and send the Trojans to the ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships which is scheduled to take place next month.
Santa Clara University vs. University of Southern California
Doubles | Order of finish: 2, 1
(1) #1 Hanfmann/Quiroz (USC) def. Khacharyan/Osintsev (SCU) – 6-2
(2) de Vroome/Johnson (USC) def. Khmiadashvili/Bertram (SCU) – 6-1
(3) Crystal/Farren (USC) vs. Mathieu/Standifer (SCU) – 5-2 susp.
Singles | Order of finish: 6, 3, 5
(1) #3 Yannick Hanfmann (USC) vs. Ashot Khacharyan (SCU) – 7-6, 3-0 susp.
(2) #68 Roberto Quiroz (USC) vs. Ilya Osintsev (SCU) – 6-1, 5-4 susp.
(3) #8 Jonny Wang (USC) def. Mikheil Khmiadashvili (SCU) – 6-1, 6-1
(4) #104 Max de Vroome (USC) vs. Sam Bertram (SCU) – 6-4, 4-2 susp.
(5) Eric Johnson (USC) def. Sebastian Mathieu (SCU) – 6-3, 6-2*
(6) #58 Nick Crystal (USC) def. Michael Standifer (SCU) – 6-0, 6-0
