By Shelby Soltau '16

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – After recently breaking the all-time singles win record at Santa Clara University with a win over Sonoma State, senior tennis star Tom Pham hopes to continue his great success to make it to the NCAA's once again. Last year, the team made it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history and made it to the second round. The men host Furman on March 6^th at 3pm, University of the Pacific on March 9^th at 11am, and Northern Arizona on March 10^th at 11am.

SantaClaraBroncos.com (SCB) got the opportunity to talk to Pham (TP) about setting the single wins record, his memories on the Santa Clara tennis team and his hopes for the rest of the season.

SCB: Talk about your win against Sonoma State and how it felt to set the school record for singles wins.
TP: I treated the match against Sonoma State like any other match. The match was a few hours after our match against Sacramento State, so I was a little fatigued. I was losing the match 0-3 early. I eventually got to 3-5 and won 10 straight games to win the match. It felt great the break the record, but I try to not focus on it. I try to focus on the things our team can still accomplish rather than the things that we have already accomplished.

SCB: You are a senior now. What has your experience at SCU been like on and off the court?
TP: It's been a great experience at SCU. On the court, I've seen our team get better every year. As a team, we've broken a record every year that I've been here. Off the court, I've met some great people at SCU. Being an engineer, I'm usually busy, but I enjoy what I've been doing over the past few years.

SCB: How does your mindset differ when playing doubles compared to singles?
TP: In doubles, you always have a guy to rely on if you're having a bad day and vice versa. In singles, it's just you and your opponent. You don't have someone to rely on if you have a bad day.

SCB: What is your favorite SCU tennis memory?
TP: My favorite SCU tennis memory was when we made NCAAs for the first time in our school history. Not only that, we beat Texas in the first round of the tournament 4-1.

SCB: What do you hope to accomplish in the rest of the season?
TP: We hope to make the NCAAs once again and we hope to win the West Coast Conference tournament.


Go Broncos!