Posted: Jan 17, 2018
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara men's tennis opens its 2018 dual match season at the East Coast Challenge on Saturday, Jan. 20 under the roof of the Lichtenberg Tennis Center in West Point, New York. The Broncos will play three matches over the weekend, starting with Saturday's matchups against Yale at 9 a.m. PT and Florida Atlantic at 1 p.m. PT followed by a Sunday match against tournament host Army at 6 a.m. PT.
"We are looking forward to getting off to a positive start. We've done a lot of work in the fall and the players have done their work over winter break. They've come back in good shape and put themselves in the best possible position to have a good start to the winter-spring season. I'm looking forward to seeing the fruits of their labor on the court," said Broncos head coach Niall Angus.
Team captains Connor Garnett and Robert Seby, both juniors, will lead the seven-member Bronco squad who are all set to compete over the weekend.
In the fall, the Broncos compiled 34-30 overall record in singles play with Garnett posting the most wins on the team at 7-3 including a successful run at the ITA Northwest Regional Championship, advancing to the round of 16 in the 128 player singles draw.
Andrew Gu and Kamran Khan round out the quartet of juniors on the team with Sebastien Mathieu the lone senior on the squad.
The sophomore duo of Vasileios Iliopoulos and Jesus Tapiador Barajas are the only two underclassmen on the team.
"It's going to be an interesting challenge playing indoors at the start of the year. With some of the adaptations we've made and the experience the players have gained, we'll be in good shape to try to get some wins," said Angus in reference to the faster and serve dependent conditions the indoor courts present.
The matches from the East Coast Challenge will be played "clinch/clinch" – when the team doubles point is won, the remaining doubles match will be stopped. And in singles, once the team match has been won, any remaining singles matches will be stopped.
The Broncos' first opponent Yale opened up its dual match season on Jan.17 in a scrimmage against Ivy League foe Brown.
Florida Atlantic began its dual match season on Jan.13-15 in the Florida State University Invitational going 1-2. The Owls beat Florida A&M, 4-0, but lost to Furman, 4-3, and to Mercer, 4-0.
As for Army, the East Coast Challenge is their dual match season opener.
"We set this trip to West Point awhile ago and it's going to be fun. It'll be a great experience for the team to see the campus of the United States Military Academy as we'll get a campus tour. But the main objective is for the tennis and that's what we'll be focused on over the weekend," Angus said.