SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Striving for a fast start in conference action, the Santa Clara men's tennis team was bested by the 68th-ranked University of the Pacific Tigers on Tuesday at home. The 4-0 Tiger sweep drops the Broncos to 6-8 on the season and 0-2 in their past two outings.
Santa Clara had three singles matches in their favor with the match winding down but a pivotal doubles point captured by the Tigers and three singles victories already in hand preserved Pacific's (11-8) undefeated 3-0 start to West Coast Conference action.
"Not the way we wanted to start WCC play," said Head Coach Derek Mills. "Pacific is a talented squad but our energy just did not measure up with them. We need to regroup fast and come out with some fire against Saint Mary's tomorrow."
All three doubles matches began with a 1-1 tie until every Tiger pairing broke a Bronco serve and capitalized on their own in the next game to lead 3-1.
Over on Court 2, Daniel Alameh and Alex Giannini would seize that early momentum and ride it to a 6-1 victory over Kamran Khan and Jeffrey Liang, a Santa Clara duo that started out 4-1 in dual matches but has now dropped three in a row.
Santa Clara's woes would continue on Court 3 as Andrew Gu and Max Heerinckx came up short by a score of 6-2 to Miguel Diaz and Bernardo Oliveira. The Bronco duo, playing together for the first time this season, broke serve to cut the deficit to 4-2 in favor of Pacific but were eventually defeated, granting the Tigers the doubles point and early advantage.
Turning to singles, Pacific stepped up with three straight set decisions. Bernardo Oliveira sent Liang packing with a 6-1, 6-2 victory. Since moving into the singles rotation, the Kaneohe, Hawaii native has been unable to build any momentum, suffering two consecutive losses.
Two spots over, Khan dropped his second match in a row to Miguel Diaz by a score of 6-3, 6-1. Although the freshman was 8-4 while competing at his customary No. 5 position, Khan is winless at 0-2 since moving to the fourth spot.
Pacific's Sem Verbeek provided the clincher on Court 1 with a 6-2, 6-4 decision over Robert Seby. Playing at the No. 1 position for the first time all season, Seby hung around with the 6-foot, 3-inch lefty but was unable to overcome Verbeek's powerful forehand and precise return placement.
The Broncos will have less than 24 hours to rally as they host Saint Mary's on Saturday afternoon at noon.
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