Posted: Mar 20, 2018
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Back on March 2, Santa Clara women's tennis opened West Coast Conference play with a win at San Diego to kick start its current four-match win streak. The Broncos will play its first conference matches since then, traveling to play Pacific on Saturday at Noon PT and Saint Mary's on Sunday at 11 a.m. PT.
Santa Clara (6-5, 1-0 WCC) is coming off a come-from-behind 4-3 win at San José State last weekend. Down 3-1, Zeina El Tawil and Maddie Pothoff picked up singles wins to tie the match, 3-3. Playing on court No. 4 in the deciding match, freshman Elvena Gevargiz beat SJSU's Laura Malsert in three sets to clinch the victory for the Broncos.
"It was a great win for us. We hadn't beaten San José State in several years so we knew we were the underdogs going in," said Broncos head coach Ben Cabell. "But the team played tough once again. In doubles, Madison (Clarke) and Maddie (Pothoff) were down either 5-2 or 5-3 and came back to win 7-5 to clinch the doubles point.
"And Elvena was fantastic. She was the last match on and she knew it was down to her. She held her nerve and competed well so we're really proud of her. That's not an easy position to be in, let alone for a freshman," said Cabell.
The Broncos will now be getting into the full swing of conference play with momentum on its side.
"I'm happy with where we are heading into the main portion of our conference schedule. We are now settled with our doubles which we knew we had to do," said Cabell in reference to the No. 1 team of Clarke and Pothoff along with the No. 2 team of Gevargiz and Katya Tabachnik. "That's been the key to our recent wins is being able to pull out those doubles matches."
Looking ahead to this weekend's match ups, Cabell said, "Nobody is out of the league in the WCC but there's no easy wins either in conference so it'll be two tight matches."
Pacific (3-6, 0-0 WCC) is coming off a 4-3 win at home against Texas-Arlington. The Tigers will host San Francisco in its conference opener on Friday before playing the Broncos.
Saint Mary's (7-5, 1-0 WCC) swept San José State, 4-0, at home last weekend and will play San Francisco on Saturday before hosting Santa Clara.