April 5, 2007
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The No. 67 Santa Clara men's tennis team responded well after losing to Stanford on Wednesday with a 6-1 win over West Coast Conference foe San Francisco on Thursday. With some new faces in the lineup, the Broncos won all three doubles matches and five out of six singles matches to claim the 6-1 victory. Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong played his first dual match singles match of the year and earned a win, while Jay Wong won his 27th match of the season.
With Bobby Rasmussen and Robert Gallman out of the lineup, the Broncos had a new look at doubles. Steven Benvenuto slid into Gallman's spot at No. 2 alongside Blane Shields and the pair won 8-5 to get the day started. Jan Macek and Kevin McQuaid won a close one at No. 1 8-6 to give SCU the doubles point. Brian Brogan and Jay Wong then closed out doubles with another solid performance, winning 8-5 to complete the sweep.
The lineup in singles also saw some changes as Brogan moved to No. 1 singles for the first time in his career, while Hirakawa-Wong slid into the No. 6 spot. Brogan battled throughout the day at No. 1, but fell in a close match to Matthew Berry 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (6). Brogan nearly won the match in the third set, but Berry came back from a 5-3 deficit to win in a tiebreaker.
The Broncos won the rest of the singles matches, led by Hirakawa-Wong, who captured his first dual match singles win of the year. He took down Mitch Del Rosario in a three-set match that was not settled until another third-set tiebreaker. Hirakawa-Wong won 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5). Shields and Wong also won three-set matches for SCU, playing at the No. 4 and No. 3 spots respectively. Both players used clutch play in the third set to earn their victories.
Macek played No. 2 for the first time this season and cruised to a straight sets win, while Hicks bounced back from a tough loss against Stanford with the match-clinching win at No. 5. Hicks took down Rainer Nachbauer 6-2, 7-5.
Santa Clara now gets a week off before hosting three matches in three days next week. The Broncos play Nevada on Friday, April 13 at 5:00 p.m. PT at the Degheri Tennis Center and then close out the regular season with two matches on Sunday, April 15. SCU plays UC San Diego at 10:00 a.m. and then Sacramento State at 3:00 p.m. The team will honor its seniors, Macek and Rasmussen, prior to the Sacramento State match.
No. 67 Santa Clara def. San Francisco 6-1
Doubles: (Order of finish 2, 1, 3)
1. SCU Jan Macek/Kevin McQuaid def. USF Matthew Berry/Thong Tu 8-6
2. SCU Steven Benvenuto/Blane Shields def. USF Torin Ching/Rainer Nachbauer 8-5
3. SCU Brian Brogan/Jay Wong def. USF Asaf Cohen/Falko Huettenberger 8-5
Singles: (Order of finish 2, 4, 5, 3, 1, 6)
1. USF Matthew Berry def. SCU Brian Brogan , 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (6)
2. SCU Jan Macek def USF Falko Huettenberger 6-1, 6-4
3. SCU Jay Wong def. USF Thong Tu 4-6, 6-4, 7-5
4. SCU Blane Shields def. USF Asaf Cohen 7-5, 2-6, 6-1
5. SCU Tommy Hicks def. USF Rainer Nachbauer 6-2, 7-5
6. SCU Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong def. USF Mitch Del Rosario 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5)
