Feb. 19, 2007
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The win streak for the Santa Clara men's tennis continued on Monday afternoon as the No. 73 Broncos defeated the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 6-1 at the Degheri Tennis Center. Once again, SCU won the doubles point and raced out to a 5-0 lead by winning the first four singles matches. Senior Jan Macek capped the day with a hard-fought 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 win over Bijan Hejazi. Santa Clara is now 8-4 on the season and has won five matches in a row.
Macek and Bobby Rasmussen once again got the team started with an outstanding performance at No. 2 doubles, beating Nigel Barton and Josh Finkelstein 8-3. After a loss by Kevin McQuaid and Blane Shields at No. 1, Brian Brogan and Jay Wong, playing for the first time together this spring, won 8-3 to clinch the doubles point.
Wong kept the momentum rolling with another commanding performance at the No. 3 singles spot, beating Max Taylor 6-1, 6-2. Rasmussen won his match at No. 4 and Blane Shields was leading Grant Robertson 7-5, 2-0 before Robertson retired with a leg injury to clinch the match for the Broncos. Tommy Hicks then finished out a convincing 6-2, 6-1 win over Nigel Barton. At No. 2, Brian Brogan played two tough sets against Anders Dalskov but could not come out with a win, falling 6-3, 6-4 to give the Gauchos their only point of the day.
In the final match of the day, Macek and Hejazi played a classic two-setter. Leading 4-1 in the first set, Macek could not hold the break and ended up going to a tiebreaker to decide the set. He quickly fell behind 5-1 in the tiebreak to Hejazi. After the changeover, Macek came out firing and swept six straight points to close out the first set 7-6 (7-5). Macek could not keep the momentum going early in the second and Hejazi broke out to a 3-0 lead. Despite the deficit, the Broncos captain got the break back and evened the match. After breaking Hejazi at 5-5, Macek served for the set. Hejazi staved off one match point and even had a game point, but Macek kept going and eventually pulled out the match.
The Broncos are back in action on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 2:30 p.m. PT against the University of San Francisco at the Degheri Tennis Center.
Santa Clara def. UC Santa Barbara 6-1
Doubles: (Order of finish 2, 1, 3)
1. UCSB Anders Dalskov/Grant Robertson def. SCU Kevin McQuaid/Blane Shields 8-3
2. SCU Jan Macek/Bobby Rasmussen def. UCSB Nigel Barton/Josh Finkelstein 8-3
3. SCU Brian Brogan/Jay Wong def. UCSB Bijan Hejazi/Max Taylor 8-5
Singles: (Order of finish 3, 4, 6, 5, 2, 1)
1. SCU Jan Macek def. UCSB Bijan Hejazi 7-6 (7-5), 7-5
2. UCSB Anders Dalskov def. SCU Brian Brogan 6-3, 6-4
3. SCU Jay Wong def. UCSB Max Taylor 6-1, 6-2
4. SCU Bobby Rasmussen def. UCSB Josh Finkelstein 6-2, 6-2
5. SCU Tommy Hicks def. UCSB Nigel Barton 6-2, 6-1
6. SCU Blane Shields def. UCSB Grant Robertson 7-5, 2-0, ret.
