April 6, 2009
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - In its final home match of the 2009 dual season, the Santa Clara men's tennis team dropped a close decision to West Coast Conference opponent Loyola Marymount, 4-3. In this Senior Day match that came down to the wire, the Broncos won two of three doubles matches and forced three singles matches into three sets.
To start things off, doubles pairs of Jay Wong and Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong, and Tommy Hicks and Kyle Dandan won their matches, 8-4 and 8-5, respectively, to give SCU a 1-0 leading heading into singles play. Despite tough play, the senior duo of Charlie Burke and John Iwanski fell in a hard fought match 8-4. Santa Clara falls to 4-9 this season with the loss.
On the singles side of play, Wong, Hirakawa-Wong, and Hicks forced each of their matches to into three long sets. Loyola Marymount's Ivan Lopez managed to edge out Wong and Tommy Hicks just came up short versus LMU's Aram Abgaryan. However, in his last match at the Degheri Tennis Center, senior Hirakawa-Wong came away with a big win versus Borja Malet, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Freshman Kyle Dandan continued to dominate at No. 2 singles, defeating LMU's Johan Berhof 6-1, 6-1.
"I'm really proud of our guys. We played extremely hard and just came up short," said Santa Clara head coach Derek Mills. "I give a lot of credit to Loyola Marymount. They came up big in tight situations down the stretch and they deserved to win."
The Broncos will travel to West Coast Conference rival San Francisco on Apr. 8 and will finish the 2009 regular dual season at No. 67 Pacific on Apr. 13.
Doubles
1. SCU Jay Wong / Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong def. LMU Renzo Maggi/Geza Bezula 8-4
2. SCU Tommy Hicks / Kyle Dandan def. LMU Borja Malet/Aris Andreasian 8-5
3. LMU Ivan Lopez/Nick Van Der Ahe def. SCU Charlie Burke / John Iwanski 8-4
Singles
1. LMU Ivan Lopez def. SCU Jay Wong 1-6, 6-3, 6-4
2. SCU Kyle Dandan def. LMU Johan Berhof 6-1, 6-1
3. SCU Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong def. LMU Borja Malet 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
4. LMU Aram Abgaryan def. SCU Tommy Hicks 6-6, 3-6, 6-4
5. LMU Geza Bezula def. SCU Charlie Burke 7-5, 6-2
6. LMU Aris Andreasian def. SCU John Iwanski 6-0, 6-0