Connor Garnett (photo courtesy of West Coast Conference)
Posted: Apr 25, 2019
CLAREMONT, Calif. – Connor Garnett recorded the match clincher at 3-all to help Santa Clara men's tennis take down No. 43-ranked BYU, 4-3 in the opening round of the West Coast Conference Championships on Thursday.
Garnett beat Mateo Vereau in three-sets, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 completing the comeback win after the Broncos (16-7) trailed 3-1 in the match. Santa Clara will face second seed Gonzaga in Friday's semifinals at 1:30 p.m. PT.
Trailing 3-1, the sixth-seeded Broncos collected wins from freshman Santiago Hinojosa and junior Vasileios Iliopoulos to force the deciding the match on court three.
On court six, Hinojosa won 7-5, 6-2 over David Ball to close the team score at 3-2 before Iliopoulos evened the score with his straight set win over Sam Tullis, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2.
Senior Robert Seby got the Broncos on the board when he defeated Matthew Pearce, 6-4, 6-3 on court five to stall third seed BYU's (17-6) momentum, which held a 2-0 lead at that point.
In doubles action, the Cougars continued its dominance as they have all season taking two out of three matches to earn the doubles point. BYU entered the match with a 43-6 record during the dual season.
On court two, the tandem of Tullis and Gajardo remained perfect on the season at 17-0, beating Arthur Neuhaus and Garnett, 6-1.
Playing together for the second consecutive week and just the third time this season, Kamran Khan and Iliopoulos leveled things on court three beating Pearce and Vereau, 6-3 to hand the Cougars duo just its second loss of the season.
However, the No. 63-ranked doubles team of Sean Hill and Jeffrey Hsu beat Andrew Gu and Robert Seby, 6-3 to secure the doubles point.
The Santa Clara win avenged a loss from earlier in the season when the Broncos lost at BYU, 4-0.
For Garnett, it was his second career match clincher at 3-all. In 2018, the senior recorded one against Pepperdine.
Follow Friday's action at 2019 WCC tennis championship central for live scoring and video streaming.
