Posted: Apr 26, 2018
CLAREMONT, Calif. – Santa Clara men's tennis lost 4-1 to Portland in the opening round of the West Coast Conference tournament on Thursday, bringing an end to the season which saw its first conference winning record since 2013-14. The Broncos finished this year with a 5-4 conference record just as it did in 2013-14.
"The guys showed a lot of heart out there today against a Portland team that won the regular season conference last year with all but one player returning this season. It's always disappointing to end the season without a conference championship but I'm proud of the fight we showed all the way through the lineup," said Broncos head coach Niall Angus.
The fifth-seeded Broncos (13-11) kicked off the tournament winning the first doubles match when Vasileios Iliopoulos and Jesus Tapiador Barajas beat Mathieu Garcia and Pierre Garcia, 6-2 on court two. However the fourth-seeded Pilots (12-8) took the next two matches to clinch the double point.
On court one, Mike Pervolarakis and Tom Hann took down Andrew Gu and Robert Seby, 6-3. The doubles point clincher came when Carlos Donat and Jamie Fisher knocked off Connor Garnett and Kamran Khan 7-5 on court three.
The Pilots took a 2-0 lead when Hann bested Sebastien Mathieu on court six, 6-2, 6-2 in singles play. For Mathieu, the lone senior on the Santa Clara squad, it proved to be his last match as a Bronco.
Santa Clara cut the deficit to 2-1 on court five when Iliopoulos beat Alex Wallace in straight sets 6-1, 6-4.
However, Portland closed out the match with wins on courts four and one. Carlos Donat handled Seby 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 and No. 56 ranked Pervolarakis took care of Gu in three sets 6-7, 6-2, 6-1 for the match clincher.
The two unfinished matches on courts two and three were in the third sets when Portland clinched it.
The fourth-seeded Portland will advance to the semifinals of the tournament to play first seed San Diego on Friday.