Feb. 1, 2007
Up Next
The Santa Clara Broncos travel to Southern California for another tough weekend with two matches against ranked foes. On Saturday, Feb. 3, SCU takes on the defending national champion Pepperdine Waves, who are currently No. 9 in the college tennis rankings. It will be the Broncos first West Coast Conference dual match of the season. The match begins at 2:00 p.m. PT. One day later, the Broncos head to Irvine to take on the Anteaters at 1:00 p.m. PT. UC Irvine is now ranked No. 74 in the country.
Last Week
Santa Clara took on two top-25 opponents this past week and despite some close matches, the Broncos suffered two defeats. On Jan. 28, SCU played No. 25 Boise State and fell 5-2. The doubles pairs nearly grabbed the doubles point after Brian Brogan and Robert Gallman won their doubles match. However, the Jan Macek/Bobby Rasmussen and Kevin McQuaid/Blane Shields tandems came up just short, losing in tiebreakers. In singles, Brogan won his third straight match, while Gallman picked up his first dual match singles win of the year. At No. 1 singles Jan Macek nearly upset No. 15 in the nation Luke Shields, but lost in a tough three-set match. Following the loss to Boise State, SCU played its first road match of the year, traveling to Berkeley on Jan. 30 to face 18th ranked California. Again, the doubles point was up for grabs, but the Golden Bears earned the point, winning one tiebreaker and claiming a 9-7 win at No. 1 doubles. Macek and Rasmussen won their match to move to 6-1 on the season in doubles. In singles, Rasmussen was the lone winner, but Macek again put up a strong fight against a top-20 opponent, falling to Pierre Mouillon 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (7).
Notes:
Macek/Rasmussen and McQuaid/Shields Moving Up Record Books
The doubles teams of Jan Macek/Bobby Rasmussen and Kevin McQuaid/Blane Shields are moving up the record books in career doubles victories. McQuaid and Shields won a school record 20 matches last year to move to No. 4 all-time in doubles wins. The pair has won three matches this year and are now tied with Eric Bachelor and Matt Cox for fourth all-time with 23 wins. Macek and Rasmussen started the year with 18 career wins together and have burst out of the gate this spring, posting a 6-1 record to move past McQuaid and Shields into third all-time with 24 wins. Macek and Rasmussen are now one win behind Tony Del Rosario and Frank Seitz for second, but the tandem is still 23 wins away from the all-time leaders, Marcell Hlousek and Jeremy Testwuide, who won 47 matches together at SCU.
Rasmussen Aiming For Top-10 In Singles
Senior Bobby Rasmussen has gotten off to a fantastic start to the spring season in singles, posting a 5-1 record to move his career singles record to 50-45. He is now within six victories of catching Marcel Hlousek for eighth all-time in career singles wins.
Brogan Finally Loses
Brian Brogan started off the dual season with three straight wins against opponents from UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis and Boise State. On Jan. 30 against California, he finally lost his first singles match of the dual season at the No. 2 position. He will look to get back to his winning ways this weekend against Pepperdine and UC Irvine.
Live Stats
Bronco tennis fans can now follow all home matches live on SantaClaraBroncos.com with live scoring for all matches. Fans can find the link to live scoring on the men's tennis schedule page or on the men's tennis home page under Bronco Bits. To view live scoring, fans must download Java Run Time software from Sun Microsystems, a free web download at java.com.
History vs. Pepperdine/UC Irvine
Santa Clara does not have a great history against either Pepperdine or UC Irvine in men's tennis. The Broncos have never beaten either opponent in a head-to-head match. Last season, the Waves beat SCU 6-1 and UC Irvine won the last match-up against the Broncos 5-2 in 2005.
Scouting The Opposition
Pepperdine is 2-1 so far on the season, losing at No. 5 Illinois 4-3, before sweeping two matches by 7-0 scores against Northwestern and Loyola Marymount. The Waves lineup features three freshmen, a sophomore, a junior and a senior. UC Irvine has played two matches this season. The Anteaters fell 7-0 to No. 4 UCLA in their opener before rebounding to defeat Brigham Young University 4-3 on Jan. 25.
In the Midst of a Road Stretch
The Santa Clara men's tennis team is in the middle of its five-game road trip. After playing Pepperdine and UC Irvine, the Broncos head to Arizona to play the University of Arizona and Arizona State. Following the road trip, the Broncos play 13 of their final 17 duals at home prior to the WCC Championships.
Ranked Foes
After facing No. 25 Boise State and No. 18 California this past week, the Broncos play eight more opponents currently ranked in the top-75 in the FILA rankings. SCU plays Pepperdine (9), UC Irvine (74), Arizona State (57), Arizona (61), UC Santa Barbara (70), Saint Mary's (58), Stanford (19), and Harvard (75).
