SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Closing out the month of January, the Santa Clara men's tennis team
will welcome the Aggies from the University of California, Davis to the Degheri Tennis Center
on Saturday for a Northern California matchup. The Broncos and Aggies will hit the courts at
12pm.
Santa Clara will put its 3-1 record and No. 52 ranking on the line against an Aggie squad that
boasts a 3-2 mark to start the season. Last season, the Broncos overcame Davis in a tightly-
contested match that ended 4-3 in favor of Santa Clara. Including that victory, Santa Clara has
won the past six meetings between the two programs.
The Broncos
The Broncos will look forward to returning home where they are a perfect 2-0 on the year after
victories over the University of California, Santa Cruz and Sonoma State University two weeks
ago.
In their last bit of tennis action competing at the ITA Kick-Off, the Broncos defeated the
University of North Carolina at Wilmington 4-2 on January 23 before falling to the defending
champions from the University of Southern California the following evening.
Four matches into the season, Santa Clara has been led by its veteran workhorses. Junior Ashot
Khacharyan, on the verge of tallying his 40th career singles victory, is 9-2 overall on the season
and 2-0 in dual match play. Fellow Russia native Ilya Osintsev improved his singles mark to 5-3
after last weekend's action, recording his 55th career singles victory in the process. The 6-foot, 4-inch lefty is just three wins away from solidifying his name as one of the top 10 leaders in singles wins in program history. As a duo in doubles, the pairing of Khacharyan and Osintsev is 3-1 on year.
Senior Sam Bertram, one of two seniors on the squad, put forth a come-from-behind
performance against UNC Wilmington to secure the match for Santa Clara as well as claim his
first win of the spring season last weekend. To date, the Aussie is an even 3-3 in singles
competition.
Bertram's doubles partner, sophomore Mikheil Khmiadashvili, split his last two singles matches
in Southern California, pushing his overall record to 4-2 on the year. The sophomore has been a
reliable performer at the No. 3 singles position so far this season.
UC Davis
3-2 on the year, the Aggies are coming off a road trip in which they traveled down to Southern
California and downed Loyola Marymount University and Grand Canyon University by scores
of 4-3 and 5-2 respectively. Their other win on the season came against the University of the
Pacific on January 17.
The Aggies have a number of players with 10 plus singles wins on the season overall.
Sophomore James Wade leads the squad with a 13-6 record overall in singles, including a mark
of 3-1 in dual match play while primarily competing at the No. 2 spot. Freshman Everett Maltby
and sophomore Bryce McKelvie, both seeing action at positions three through six, boast records
of 12-5. Alec Adamson, competing at the No. 1 position, is 9-6 overall on the year and 2-2 in
dual match play. The sophomore is 6-3 in his last 10 matches.
Adamson and partner Adam Levie play at the No. 1 doubles position and are 8-5 on the year and
2-3 in dual match play. After starting winless in three consecutive dual matches, the duo has built momentum and is now 2-0 in its previous two matches.
Competing head-to-head against the Broncos over the past several seasons, the Aggies' last
victory against Santa Clara at the Degheri Tennis Center came in 2008.
Be sure to check on SantaClaraBroncos.com for more on Santa Clara's performance against UC
Davis. Stay up to date with everything men's tennis on Facebook, Instagram
@santaclaramtennis, and Twitter @SCUmtennis. Go Broncos!
