April 15, 2009
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The 2009 West Coast Conference men's tennis tournament begins this Friday, April 17 in San Diego. The Santa Clara is heading into this weekend's tournament seeded eighth and with 4-11 dual season record having lost its final two regular season matches on the road.
In the WCC seedings released Wednesday afternoon, Santa Clara was seeded eighth out of eight teams. Despite the low seeding, the Broncos are looking forward taking on some of the top teams in the conference and improving on last year's tournament performance.
"We feel we are better than an eighth seed and this weekend we are going to have to prove that," said Bronco head Coach Derek Mills. "It's been one of our goals throughout the season to do better in the WCC tournament than we did last year, and we are excited to have the opportunity to do that over the next few days."
The Broncos have struggled in WCC play this year, going 0-3 for the season. In its first WCC match of the season, Santa Clara traveled to Saint Mary's on March 3. Jay Wong and freshman Kyle Dandan grabbed wins for the Broncos in the 5-2 loss. Earlier in April, SCU hosted Loyola Marymount in its final home match of the season and arguably the closest match of the season. Despite singles wins from Hirakawa-Wong and Dandan, Santa Clara could not overpower the Lions and dropped the decision 4-3. Last week SCU fell on the road to San Francisco 6-1, with senior Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong grabbing the only point for Santa Clara.
West Coast Conference Tournament Seeds:
1. Pepperdine
2. San Diego
3. Portland
4. San Francisco
5. Saint Mary's
6. Gonzaga
7. Loyola Marymount
8. Santa Clara