Men’s Tennis Hosts Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine - Santa Clara

Connor Garnett (left) & Vasileios Iliopoulos

Posted: Apr 05, 2017

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara men's tennis hosts Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine this weekend as it resumes West Coast Conference play. The Broncos face the LMU Lions on Saturday at 3:15 p.m. PT and the Waves on Sunday at 2 p.m. Saturday's match was originally scheduled for 11 a.m., but adjusted due to rain.

SCU and Pepperdine were originally scheduled to play on Friday but due to weather in the forecast the match was pushed back to Sunday.

Santa Clara improved to 13-3 (3-2 WCC) on the year after sweeping last weekend's road matches at Pacific and St. Mary's. The Broncos won 4-3 at Pacific and 4-1 at St. Mary's and now own a three-match winning streak.

"Last weekend was great in terms of winning ugly," head coach Niall Angus said. "Now we've got an opportunity to play Pepperdine, one of the best teams in the WCC if not the best team and also a good team in LMU. It'll be great to challenge ourselves against some of those guys."

SCU won the doubles point in two straight matches and five of its last six matches, a point of focus for Angus. Overall, the Broncos have lost the doubles point six times this year and come back to win the match on four occasions.

"We've already proven this year that we can hang with anyone," Angus said. "I'm looking forward to seeing continued improvements, especially in the doubles. We've been a lot better in the doubles and I'm looking for that trend to continue and for the leaders on this team to keep leading."

Sophomore Robert Seby boasts an 8-6 singles record in dual match play with each match coming on court one. Sophomore Andrew Gu is 11-3 playing on court two and has won seven of his last 10 matches. Sophomore Connor Garnett has gone 7-2 in his last 10 matches and is 12-3 on court three in dual match play. The trio has combined for a 31-12 record in singles play.

Freshman Jesus Tapiador Barajas owns a 9-5 record on court four for SCU and had the match-clinching victory for the Broncos at Pacific (March 31). Freshman Vasileios Iliopoulos is 10-4 in match play (1-0 on court four and 9-4 on court five), including the clinching win for the Broncos at LSU (Feb. 3). Kamran Khan is 1-0 on court five this year and 5-4 on court six.

"I think it's always difficult when things are up and down like the weather or whatever it may be," Angus said. "They do the best they can and we don't worry about things we can't control. Our attitude, commitment and how we compete, those are three things we control and then we'll see what the results are."

Loyola Marymount is 5-11 this season with a 1-2 league record. Luke Bohuslav is 7-8 in dual match play this year and is riding a five-match winning streak. He has played on courts three through six while Gabriel Diaz Freire is 10-5 with matches played on courts two through five. Nick Borchenko is 5-9 on court one for the Lions.

Pepperdine has been the class of the WCC throughout its program history. The Waves have won 40 WCC Tournament titles all-time. The 2017 squad owns an 8-7 overall record but is 3-0 in conference play and riding a four-match winning streak. Guilherme Hadlich is 7-6 on court one for the Waves and has won two straight matches. Dane Esses is 9-4 in dual play and has played on court six for the Waves. Jack Van Slyke is 7-4 on the year playing on court five.

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