SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Santa Clara men's tennis squad stunned No. 28 University of San Diego by capturing the doubles point on Sunday but it was not enough to end USD's now 28-match win streak in the West Coast Conference.
The Broncos (10-13, 3-6) won the doubles in tiebreak fashion, handing USD its first doubles point loss in 14 conference matches, but four consecutive Torero singles victories led to a 4-1 defeat for Santa Clara.
"Credit to San Diego for staying poised today," said head coach Derek Mills. "They are a tough team to beat but I'm proud that our guys played with spirit and put up a fight."
Sunday's season finale and Senior Day for Ashot Khacharyan started with promise for the Broncos. Despite a 6-1 doubles defeat on Court 3, Connor Garnett and Robert Seby scored a 6-2 decision against the No. 81 ranked pairing in the country. Andrew Gu and Kamran Khan fed off that momentum on court 2. Locked in back and forth play all match long, the freshman-freshman duo outlasted their Torero opponents 7-4 in the tiebreaker to give Santa Clara the early 1-0 advantage.
The top team in the WCC responded. Joshua Page defeated Jeffrey Liang 6-2, 6-2 on court 6. Khacharyan, playing in his final collegiate match, battled against No. 56 Uros Petronijevic but couldn't quite pull the upset, falling 6-4, 6-4 at the top position. Khacharyan still was able to etch his name in the record books and leaves Santa Clara as the ninth-winningest singles competitor in program history.
San Diego finished things off on courts 5 and 3 in straight set fashion. When the match was called however, Santa Clara's Seby was locked in a third set battle on Court 2 and Garnett had just claimed the first game of set No. 3 on court 4.
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