Men's Tennis Picks Up Big Win Over Rival Dons

By Henry Gula

Amid the buzz of Santa Clara's Preview Days weekend, the men's tennis team pulled out a close 4-3 win over the University of San Francisco Dons, snapping a three-match losing streak.

The Broncos now sit at 14-9 overall and 2-4 in conference, with two big conference matches coming up at home against Gonzaga University and the University of Portland before heading to San Diego, Calif. for the West Coast Conference championships April 24-27.

"The WCC tournament looks rough, there's three teams in the top 40 in the country and we're sitting at 60," said Head Coach Derek Mills. "We can still finish the season pretty strong. It's been a tough season, but the good win this weekend will hopefully lead to a strong finish."

On Saturday, the Broncos came out strong in doubles play, seeing their top pairing of John Lamble and Ilya Osintsev play one of their best matches of the season, defeating their opponents by a score of 8-3.

"The last few matches me and John have played really solid," said Osintsev. "The last match (against USF) was the best of the season for us. We don't have a lot of doubles point wins this year. Hopefully we can keep it going because we may see that same team in the conference tournament."

The Broncos No. 2 doubles pairing of Matt Kecki and Tom Pham then also won their game by a score of 8-6 and clinching the match's doubles point.

That point proved to be the key point for the Broncos, winning the match at the end of the day for Santa Clara and snapping the streak of five consecutive doubles-point losses for the team. It was only second time all season USF lost the point.

"I liked how the team competed in doubles; we knew they had won 14 doubles points in a row and we challenged ourselves to break that streak," said Mills.

As the day went on, Lamble, ranked No. 82 in the country and playing in the number one singles slot for the Broncos, won his match by a score of 6-3, 6-2 and picked up the team's second point of the day. Lamble improved his season record to 19-12.

Osintsev, playing at No. 2 for the Broncos, had a tough day and lost in straight sets by a score of 6-3, 6-1 to Bernardo Saraiva of the Dons.

Kecki and Pham pulled out big wins in the number three and four singles positions respectively, and added to the Broncos' lead.

The Dons won the five and six singles matches, but Kecki's point in the third spot was key to securing the victory for the Broncos. He won his match in three sets to improve to 12-7 on the season.

"Once again our go-to guys in singles came through with (Lamble) and (Pham) winning in straight sets and then (Kecki) clinching the win with a solid performance at No. 3," said Mills.

Following a year when the Broncos advanced to the NCAA Tournament and won a huge first-round game against the University of Texas, it looks as though the team will have to win the conference tournament to return to the NCAA Tournament.

Their path to the tournament continues this Friday at home against Gonzaga.