Feb. 8, 2010

FRESNO, Calif. - On Sunday afternoon, the Santa Clara men's tennis team fell to No. 26 Fresno State 4-0. Because of weather, the match began later than scheduled and was played until clinched. With the loss, the Broncos fall to 3-2 on the season.

Though SCU pushed all matches to the limit, the Broncos could not come away with the big points. On the doubles side of play, Santa Clara dropped the No. 1 and 2 matches by a narrow margin. Kyle Dandan and Nicolas Vinel fell to Fresno State's Remi Boutillier and #36 Rikus de Villiers, 8-4, and Jay Wong and Brian Brogan fell to #20 Mirko Zapletal and Taylor Leiby 8-6.

Heading into singles play down 1-0, SCU could not find a way to edge out the Bulldogs. Andrew Kells, Wong, and Vinel dropped the No. 3,4 and 5 singles matches, respectively, for Fresno to take the match. Kells forced his match up with Tejesvi Veerepalli to a tie breaker, but could not hang on, falling 6-3, 7-6(3).

"Fresno State is a solid team through and through," said Bronco head coach Derek Mills. "I am disappointed with the loss, but hopefully this is something that we can learn from and improve upon for our next matches."

Santa Clara is back in action on Feb. 13 and 14 in Las Vegas as the Broncos take on Idaho and UNLV. First serve for both matches is set for 10 a.m.

Doubles

FS #36 Rikus de Villiers/Remi Boutillier def. SCU Kyle Dandan / Nicolas Vinel 8-4

FS #20 Mirko Zapletal/Taylor Leiby def. SCU Brian Brogan / Jay Wong 8-6

SCU Andrew Kells / Grant Fleming vs. FS Tejesvi Veerepalli/Siddharth Alapati DNF 8-8

Singles

SCU Kyle Dandan vs. FS Mirko Zapletal DNF 6-7, 3-3

SCU Brian Brogan vs. FS Rikus de Villiers DNF 3-6, 6-3, 5-2

FS Tejesvi Veerepalli def. SCU Andrew Kells 6-3, 7-6 (3)

FS Remi Boutillier def. SCU Jay Wong 6-1, 6-2

FS David Ayoun def. SCU Nicolas Vinel 7-5, 6-4

SCU Tom Pham vs. FS Siddharth Alapati DNF 4-6, 6-2, 4-2