See the bracket for the WCC Tennis Championships here and the accompanying release here.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Santa Clara women's tennis team heads down to San Diego to kick off the WCC Championships against Loyola Marymount at 9 a.m. on Wed., April 22 at the Barnes Tennis Center.
"We beat LMU during season so we feel like we have a good shot again," said head coach Ben Cabell. "But it's going to be a close match."
In a quick turnaround from its last regular season matches – in which the team was upended by Gonzaga and Portland on April 18 and 19 respectively – Santa Clara heads into the playoffs with the No. 7 seed. Santa Clara shares the same conference record with Gonzaga, but due to Gonzaga's win in their head-to-head matchup on April 18, the Bulldogs snagged the No. 6 seed and pushed the Broncos to No. 7
The Broncos concluded the regular season with a 7-11 overall record and a 3-6 record in the WCC. Santa Clara is up against No. 10 seed Loyola Marymount – 1-8 in conference – in the first match on the women's side of the WCC Championships. The Broncos were victorious over the Lions on April 2 by a score of 5-2 on at the LMU Tennis Center.
The winner of the Santa Clara/Loyola Marymount match moves on to play No. 2 Portland. But the Broncos are first focused on the task at hand.
"We know who we play if we win," said Cabell, "but it's win or go home. We have to focus on the first match before looking ahead, because it's not going to be an easy one."
Last season Santa Clara made it to the semifinals with wins over Portland and San Diego before falling to the eventual champion Pepperdine Waves.
"Our goal is to finish the season strong and get ourselves to the semifinals and as far as we can go," Cabell added.
"The girls are really excited to play in the conference tournament. We want to be in San Diego for a few days at least."
Loyola Marymount
The Loyola Marymount Lions finished their regular season 4-19 overall with a conference mark of 1-8. Four of their losses ended by a score of 4-3, while they finally found a conference win in their last regular season match of the season over Pacific by the same score.
Last Time Against the Lions
Santa Clara beat Loyola Marymount on April 2 by a score of 5-2.
Picking up the win over LMU started with the strength of Santa Clara's doubles play. Nabila Farah and Daniella Silva shut out Ellie Grossman and Lisa Piller 6-0, which set up Chelby Cookeand Delphine Rouvillois to clinch the doubles point on court 2 with their 6-3 win over Anna Romeka and Jessica Perez.
With the Broncos up 1-0, the Lions roared back into the match in singles. Andrea Crespo ousted Farah at No. 2 singles 6-2, 6-0 to tie the match at one point apiece. Julia Norlin then beat Danielle Zinn 6-3, 6-1 for LMU to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Cooke was the initiator of the comeback, defeating Romeka 7-5, 6-4 to tie the match once again, this time at 2-2. Next, freshman Zeina El Tawil continued the Bronco push with a resurgent win over Grossman 6-3, 0-6, 6-0 on court 5.
With Santa Clara now leading 3-2, Silva came in to close the deal on court 4, taking down Kristine Kouyoumjian 6-4, 7-5 and sealing the match for the Broncos.
Rouvillois capped the win with a spirited performance of her own over Perez, earning the fifth point of the day for the Broncos 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(8).
Check back to SantaClaraBroncos.com for more news and updates.
Go Broncos!
