BATON ROUGE, La. – Santa Clara men's tennis moved to 4-0 on the year with a comeback victory over LSU on Friday afternoon. The Broncos won by a score of 4-3 at LSU Tennis Complex in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as freshman Vasileios Iliopoulos won on court five to clinch the victory.
"It was a fantastic effort from all the guys," head coach Niall Angus said. "We said we'd need everyone to play hard and today we did that. I think we gave them too much respect in doubles but after that we came out and we had our energy and came up really big in some moments. I'm really happy to get the win."
Sophomore Connor Garnett earned the first victory for the Broncos on court three in singles play, defeating Gabor Csonka, 7-5, 6-1. Garnett upped his singles winning streak to five while sophomore Kamran Khan took his up to four straight singles match victories. Khan claimed a 7-5, 6-2 win on court six over Agie Moreno. Freshman Jesus Tapiador Barajas won a tightly contested match on court four over Eric Samuelsson, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4). The match came down to court five where Iliopoulos battled back to another close matchup, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4).
Freshman Vasileios Iliopoulos clinched the victory for the Broncos on court 5! pic.twitter.com/sWTBycgc5x
— SCU Men's Tennis (@SCUMTennis) February 4, 2017
"I was really pleased with Vas," Angus said. "He's worked incredibly hard and didn't get some success in the fall that he probably deserved for how hard he's worked. When we needed him today against a very good SEC team, he came up clutch. Match point down, he battled back and got the job done. It wasn't just him but it was every single one of the guys."
LSU (1-3) clinched the doubles point with a win on court two and court one. Gabor Csonka and Julian Saborio of LSU defeated Iliopoulos and sophomore Andrew Gu on court two, 6-0. Jordan Daigle and Justin Butsch won 6-2 over Garnett and sophomore Robert Seby on court one.
SCU continues its two-match road trip on Sunday at Tulane at 10 a.m. PT.
SCU 4, LSU 3
Feb. 3, 2017 | LSU Tennis Complex (Baton Rouge, La.)
DOUBLES
(1) Garnett/Seby (SCU) Daigle/Butsch (LSU) – 6-2
(2) Csonka/Saborio (LSU) def. Iliopoulos/Gu (SCU) – 6-0
(3) Wagner/Samuelsson (LSU) vs. Tapiador Barajas/Khan (SCU) - 5-4, unfinished
LSU wins doubles point.
Order of finish: 2, 1
SINGLES
(1) Justin Butsch (LSU) def. Robert Seby (SCU) – 6-2, 6-4
(2) Nikola Samardzic (LSU) def. Andrew Gu (SCU) - 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5)
(3) Connor Garnett (SCU) def. Gabor Csonka (LSU) – 7-5, 6-1
(4) Jesus Tapiador Barajas (SCU) def. Rafael Wagner (LSU) – 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (6-2)
(5) Vasileios Iliopoulos (SCU) def. Eric Samuelsson (LSU) – 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4)
(6) Kamran Khan (SCU) def. Agie Moreno (LSU) – 7-5, 6-2
Order of finish: 3, 6, 1, 4, 2, 5
