SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Serving up the first match in West Coast Conference action, the Santa Clara men's tennis team dropped its match against local rival University of San Francisco. The Dons grabbed the tightly-contested doubles point and secured three consecutive singles victories to top the Broncos by a score of 4-0 on Wednesday afternoon at the Degheri Tennis Center.

The loss drops Santa Clara to 4-5 on the season and 0-1 in WCC play. The Broncos will regroup over the next 48 hours and travel to Utah where they will take on Weber State University and Brigham Young University on Friday and Saturday respectively.

The Dons seized an early advantage in doubles action with a 6-3 victory on Court 1. Santa Clara's No. 1 pairing of Ashot Khacharyan and Mikheil Khmiadashvili jumped out quickly by capturing the first point. However, USF capitalized on Santa Clara service errors to go up 3-1 in response. Both squads traded the next four points but Santa Clara was unable to prolong a come-from-behind performance, falling to the Dons' nationally ranked pairing of Bernardo Saraiva and Nils Skajaa.

Over on Court 3, the Dons clinched the doubles point after securing a 6-3 victory. Similar to the match on Court 1, the Bronco pairing of Michael Standifer and Sebasiten Mathieu grabbed an early 1-0 lead after breaking USF's serve. After falling behind, Santa Clara's duo closed a 4-1 Don lead to a 5-3 deficit but were ultimately overcome in the end.

San Francisco fed off its momentum transitioning into singles play. On Court 5, Vasco Valverde grabbed a quick 3-0 lead over Santa Clara's Max Heerinckx in set number one and the USF junior would go on to claim the set 6-0. Unable to halt Valverde's momentum, Heerinckx eventually fell 6-0, giving the Dons a 2-0 lead in the match.

USF's Thomas Takemoto provided the third point for the Dons on Court 4 with a revenge victory against Santa Clara's Sam Bertram. Last spring, the Aussie downed Takemoto in straight sets. This time around, the redshirt-sophomore from USF came away with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. Bertram carried a 4-3 lead just over midway through set number two but Takemoto managed to hit his spots and tallied three consecutive points to claim the match.

Just a few moments later, Saraiva provided the Dons with the clincher on Court 1 with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Khacharyan. The Santa Clara junior collected the first point of the match after a lengthy rally but Saraiva responded and found his rhythm to take the first set. Down 4-1 in set number two after having his serve broken, Khacharyan battled back to close the deficit to 5-3 but was ultimately overcome in the end.

Santa Clara University vs. University of San Francisco

Doubles | Order of Finish: 1, 3

Singles | Order of Finish: 5, 4, 1*