Posted: Mar 27, 2018
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara men's tennis (9-6, 1-1 WCC) travels to the Pacific Northwest for a pair of West Coast Conference matches against Portland on Thursday and Gonzaga on Saturday. The Broncos are coming off a weekend split, losing to Pacific and beating Saint Mary's.
"The loss against Pacific was a tough one," said Broncos head coach Niall Angus. "We had the quality to win but we didn't quite bring the right mental attitude to win that match. In times where the schedule and the weather are changing, you have to be at the top of your game and be ready to play wherever. And I think we got distracted a little bit during that time and when that happens, the teams in the WCC are good enough beat you. It was important to learn some lessons from that match in order to turn it around, which we did on Sunday against Saint Mary's."
The 4-0 win against Saint Mary's snapped Santa Clara's four match losing streak after winning eight straight matches.
The Broncos will look to start another winning streak against defending WCC regular season champions Portland (6-7, 1-2 WCC). The first serve for Thursday's match is scheduled for 11 a.m. PT. The Pilots feature last season's conference Player of the Year Michail Pervolarakis who is currently ranked the 52nd singles player. Portland is one game behind the Broncos in the loss column in the WCC standings.
Saturday's opponent, Gonzaga (7-6, 0-3 WCC) is currently in last place in the conference standings. First serve is scheduled for 10 a.m. PT.
Junior Connor Garnett has a team-best 11-2 singles record for the Broncos playing mostly out on court No. 4. Sophomore Jesus Barajas, who moved up to play No. 2 last weekend boasts a 10-3 singles record, good for second best on the team. Junior Andrew Gu, playing exclusively at No. 1 is 9-3.
In doubles, Angus has kept the same lineup throughout the dual match season pairing Gu and Robert Seby (9-2) at No. 1, Barajas and Vasileios Iliopoulos (8-5) at No. 2. and Garnett and Kamran Khan (6-7) at No. 3.
