By Rico Chow '12

Los Angeles, Calif. – The singles points turned out to be the difference as the No. 55 Santa Clara men's tennis team pulled out a 4-3 victory at WCC opponent Loyola Marymount Lions Sunday morning in Los Angeles, Calif. The win makes the Broncos 4-3 overall in the season and 1-1 in WCC action.

The Broncos and the Lions brought great intensity to the doubles matches. After John Lamble and Maxime Armengaud dropped the first match 8-2, Tom Pham and Eugene Muchynski collected a victory in the tie-breaker game against Loyola Marymount's Jack Zapala and Tyler Gottshall, 9-8(4). This let the doubles point depend on No. 1 doubles match. Although Kyle Dandan and Nicholas Vinel were leading 4-0 early, the doubles point slipped away from Santa Clara when it lost a close match against Nicholas Bjerke and Daniel Simko. 

In singles matches, the Broncos came back with four victories to secure a final score of 4-3 win over the Lions. Pham and Muchynski were able to carry the momentum from the doubles victory to top their opponents, Tom Price and Simko, respectively. Dandan had a close match against Aris Andreasian, but came back from the doubles match with a 7-6(4), 6-4 singles victory.

The highlight of the match was at No. 2 singles when Armengaud did not show any mercy and swept a victory without losing any game against Loyola Marymount's Sebastian Bustamante, 6-0, 6-0.

"We escaped with the win but we can still do better," said SCU head coach Derek Mills.

The Broncos will travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas next weekend to play Big Ten opponent Iowa on Sat., Feb. 12 and SEC opponent Arkansas on Sun., Feb. 13.  The first serve is set at 12:00 p.m.

Go Broncos!

No. 55 Santa Clara 4, Loyola Marymount 3

Results 

#1 Singles: SCU Kyle Dandan def. LMU Aris Andreasian; 7-6(4), 6-4

#2 Singles: SCU Maxime Armengaud def. LMU Sebastian Bustamante; 6-0, 6-0

#3 Singles: LMU Nicholas Bjerke def. SCU John Lamble; 6-0, 2-6, 6-4

#4 Singles: LMU Alex Wilton def. SCU Nicolas Vinel; 3-6, 6-2, 6-1

#5 Singles: SCU Tom Pham def. LMU Tom Price; 7-6, 6-0

#6 Singles: SCU Eugene Muchynski def. LMU Daniel Simko; 6-3, 7-5

#1 Doubles: LMU Bjerke/Simko def. SCU Dandan/Vinel; 8-6

#2 Doubles: LMU Wilton/Bustamante def. SCU Lamble/Armengaud; 8-2

#3 Doubles: SCU Pham/Muchynski def. LMU Jack Zapala/Tyler Gottshall; 9-8 (4)