Posted: Apr 18, 2018
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara men's tennis finishes its regular season on the road this weekend needing a win to clinch a berth in the West Coast Conference tournament.
The Broncos (12-9, 4-3 WCC) currently sit in fifth place in the conference standings with the top six teams qualifying for the conference tournament in Claremont, California from April 26 – 28.
Santa Clara travels to southern California to play Loyola Marymount at 1 p.m. on Friday and Pepperdine at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
"If we win one of the matches, we are in the tournament. If we lose both matches and Pepperdine wins both weekend matches and Pacific beats San Diego, we are knocked out," said Broncos head coach Niall Angus while pointing out that San Diego is also playing for the regular season conference championship if they win both its matches this weekend.
The Broncos will look to take care of business on its own as it controls its own destiny.
"LMU were in shot of winning the conference title for most of the season. They are much improved from last year, are well coached and very deep in their lineup. So that will be a very difficult task but it'll be a great chance to test ourselves on the road again," said Angus whose team is 3-6 on the road. LMU (15-5, 5-2 WCC) are in third place in the conference and have only lost once in eight matches at home this season.
"Pepperdine is a team who haven't reached their potential this season but they have a lot of talent on the team as well. They made the finals of the conference tournament last year and still have some returners from that team," said the head coach. The Waves (6-15, 2-5 WCC) are 4-5 at home this season.
"Its two very strong teams we are going up against this weekend. We wouldn't want it any other way to play against some of the better teams at the end of the season to see where we are at. We've done a good job to get into this position where making the conference is in our hands and now its about competing and giving ourselves the best possible opportunity in each match," said Angus.
