Men's Tennis Continues Rising in the Ranks
By Chris Glennon
After losing to Arkansas on Friday night, the Santa Clara men's tennis team rebounded to shut out the University of Pacific on Sunday afternoon at the Degheri Tennis Center. The dominating victory for the Broncos improved their record to 8-3 and the team moved up to No. 37 in the national rankings.
Head Coach Derek Mills, now in his fifth season with the team, said he was still feeling the sting of Friday's loss before the match Sunday.
"Friday really hurt," said Mills. "Today I emphasized that we needed to come out with a lot of energy. I loved the way we did that."
Santa Clara got off to a hot start in the doubles matches, taking two of the three en route to earning the first point of the afternoon. The team of Kyle Dandan and Tom Pham cruised to an 8-2 victory, while John Lamble and Ilya Osintsev won 8-6.
Sophomore John Lamble, who also won his singles match in straight sets over Pacific's Alex Golding, credited the team's energy in getting the day off to a good start.
"We wanted to come back strong after the tough loss at home on Friday," Lamble explained. "Getting the doubles point energized us for the rest of the day."
The singles matches got off to an ominous start. Dandan, whose recent individual ranking of No. 106 in the country is a season-high for a Bronco player, dropped his first set. But the senior was able to bounce back by winning the second set and eventually the match in a tiebreaker. The other five Santa Clara singles players, Lamble, Pham, Osintsev, Nicolas Vinel and Eugene Muchynski, were all victorious. Pham's victory was his 11th straight. Mills was pleased with his team's overall performance.
"Pacific has been a historically difficult team for us," Mills explained. "We barely beat them 4-3 last year, and to win like this was big."
The victory helped the No. 37 Broncos continue their hot start. While that ranking is highest in team history, Mills insisted the success is not a surprise.
"We expect to win," he said, "and today was definitely a step in the right direction."
Santa Clara will begin West Coast Conference play on March 23. The Broncos' No. 37 ranking is second best among WCC teams, trailing only Pepperdine who currently sits at No. 13. Brigham Young University (No. 51) and Saint Mary's (No. 64) are the only other WCC teams in the top 75. The Broncos finished runner-up in both 2010 and 2011.
The team will take its ranking to Southern California this weekend for a matchup with UC Irvine tomorrow and UC Santa Barbara on Sunday.
Contact Chris Glennon at cglennon@scu.edu.