April 4, 2007
STANFORD, CALIF. - For the second straight match, the No. 67 Bronco men's tennis team saw its dual match come down to the final singles match, but this time SCU could not pull out the win. No. 60 Stanford captured the final singles match to earn a 4-3 win over the visiting Broncos on Wednesday afternoon at the Taube Family Tennis Center. SCU lost all three doubles matches, but came back to win three of the first five singles matches before losing the final match. Brian Brogan, Jay Wong and Blane Shields were winners in singles.
The doubles pairs could not break through for a win against the Cardinal. Jan Macek and Kevin McQuaid fell 8-4 on Court 1 and Blane Shields and Robert Gallman were narrowly beaten 8-6 at No. 2. The Broncos best chance came at No. 3, but Brogan and Wong lost in a tiebreaker 9-8 (9-7) to Kevin Kaiser and Eric McKean.
Despite losing the doubles point, Santa Clara stormed out of the gate in singles, led by Shields and Brogan. Shields bounced back from his first defeat of the season last weekend to post an impressive 6-1, 6-2 victory over Paul Morrissey at No. 5. Brogan followed that win with a 6-2, 6-1 win that put SCU up 2-1.
The Cardinal regained control, however, by winning the next two matches. Richard Wire beat Macek 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) and Kaiser defeated Gallman 6-2, 7-5 at No. 4 to put Stanford up 3-2 with two matches to go.
Wong kept the Broncos hopes alive with an amazing three-set win at No. 3 over Blake Muller. After breezing to a 6-1 win in the first set, Wong lost a second-set tiebreaker 9-7 to send the match to the third set. In the third, Wong got up a break, but Muller recovered to send the match to a decisive tiebreaker. Wong found himself down 6-3 in the tiebreaker, but he staved off three match points and eventually won the breaker 9-7 to give Santa Clara its third point.
The match came down to Tommy Hicks and David Ryan on Court 6. The two split the first two sets with identical 6-3 scores. In the third, Ryan had too much for Hicks and won the set 6-3 to give the Cardinal the victory.
Santa Clara falls to 15-6 on the year and the team takes on San Francisco on Thursday, April 5 at the Degheri Tennis Center at 2:30 p.m. PT.
No. 60 Stanford def. No. 67 Santa Clara 4-3
Doubles (Order of finish 1, 2, 3)
1. Matt Bruch / Blake Muller (S) d. Jan Macek / Kevin McQuaid(SCU), 8-4
2. Richard Wire / Paul Morrissey (S) d. Robert Gallman / Blane Shields (SCU), 8-6
3. Eric McKean / Kevin Kaiser (S) d. Brian Brogan / Jay Wong (SCU), 9-8 (9-7)
Singles (Order of finish 5, 2, 1, 4, 3, 6)
1. No. 110 Richard Wire (S) Jan Macek (SCU), 6-3, 7-6 (7-4)
2. Brian Brogan (SCU) d. Eric McKean (S) 6-2, 6-1
3. Jay Wong (SCU) d. Blake Muller (S), 6-1, 6-7 (9-7), 7-6 (9-7)
4. Kevin Kaiser (S) Robert Gallman (SCU), 6-2, 7-5
5. Blane Shields (SCU) d. Paul Morrissey (S), 6-2, 6-2
6. David Ryan (S) d. Tommy Hicks (SCU), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
