March 24, 2007
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The No. 63 Bronco men's tennis team bounced back from its defeat Friday to sweep Montana State 7-0 on Saturday afternoon at the Degheri Tennis Center. Despite a number of changes to the lineup, the Broncos continued their impressive play with a dominating victory. Freshman Steven Benvenuto teamed with Jay Wong to win his first career doubles dual match, while freshman Joe Galbraith won his first career singles dual match. Blane Shields remained unbeaten in the dual season with another straight sets victory.
With Bobby Rasmussen taking the day off to not go over the maximum number of competition dates, Robert Gallman and Blane Shields took over the No. 1 doubles spot and earned an 8-5 win over Jakob Dybala and Kyle McDonald. Jan Macek teamed with Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong to win at the second spot and Benvenuto joined fellow freshman Jay Wong to defeat Justin Hauck and Anton Leonenko 8-7 (1) at No. 3. It was Benvenuto's first ever win in the dual season.
In singles, Jan Macek breezed to a straight sets win to keep the momentum going and then Tommy Hicks got back on track with a 6-1, 6-1 won at No. 5 over David Kovas. Shields was next off the court to improve his dual match singles record to 7-0 with a win over Justin Hauck. Wong recovered from his loss on Friday against Cornell with a win at No. 2 to earn his 24th win of the year.
The big story of the day, however, was Galbraith. The freshman battled into a supertiebreaker before prevailing for his first dual match win 6-1, 6-7 (2), 1-0 (5). The win came in front of Galbraith's father, John, who is a former member of the Bronco tennis team.
In the final match of the day, Gallman was victorious in his first singles match after battling bronchitis for much of the past two weeks.
Brian Brogan sat our Saturday's match after taking six hours of finals on Friday and winning a singles match against Cornell immediately upon completing his tests.
Santa Clara (13-5) gets back to the courts on Monday, March 26 with a match against No. 61 Stanford in the last road match of the season for SCU. The match starts at 5:00 p.m. PT.
No. 63 Santa Clara def. Montana State 7-0
Doubles: (Order of finish 2, 1, 3)
1. SCU Robert Gallman/Blane Shields def. MONT Jakob Dybala/Kyle McDonald 8-5
2. SCU Jan Macek/Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong def. MONT David Kovas/Igor Vuckovic 8-2
3. SCU Steven Benvenuto/Jay Wong def. MONT Justin Hauck/Anton Leonenko 8-7(1)
Singles: (Order of finish 1, 5, 4, 2, 6, 3)
1. SCU Jan Macek def. MONT Jakob Dybala 6-4, 6-1
2. SCU Jay Wong def. MONT Kyle McDonald 6-4, 6-3
3. SCU Robert Gallman def. MONT Anton Leonenko 6-4, 6-4
4. SCU Blane Shields def. MONT Justin Hauck 7-5, 6-2
5. SCU Tommy Hicks def. MONT David Kovas 6-1, 6-1
6. SCU Joe Galbraith def. MONT Myles Perkins 6-1, 6-7 (2), 1-0 (5)
