Men's Tennis Team Secures Two Victories

By Gabe Taylor

Twelve hours after the official start time of Santa Clara's matches against UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz, the men's tennis team departed from the Degheri Center with two victories packed away in their athletic bags.

An unforgiving forecast forced the third match of the day against Sonoma State to be rescheduled for March 10.

"We are only going to worry about things that we can control," said Santa Clara Head Coach Derek Mills. "And the one thing that we can definitely not control is the weather."

Rain persisted throughout the day, causing delays in the action and the expected start time of 9:30 a.m. to be pushed back an hour later. At 9:30 p.m., the matches had finally concluded.

"It was a really long day for the guys, but I felt like we did a good job," said Mills. "We kept focus even though we had a lot of delays."

As if the weather wasn't bad enough, health factored into the chaotic day as well.

Despite feeling under the weather, Nicolas Vinel refused to give in. He battled back from a 5-2 deficit to win 11 games straight, and ultimately, the match.

"It was really nice to see that my coaches trusted me and still believed in me," said Vinel. "Plus, I didn't want to let my team down."

Adding to the team's success was sophomore John Lamble, who faced off against UC Santa Cruz as the No. 1 singles player. Leaping out to a 6-0 victory in the first set, Lamble outlasted Devin Nerenberg 7-5 to claim the match.

Kyle Dandan downed his UC Davis opponent in two sets by a score of 6-3, 6-3.

But what really impressed Mills were the performances put on by Tom Pham, Eugene Muchynski and Kyohhei Kamono.

"The Lower end of our lineup really took care of business," said Mills.

With the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Kickoff Weekend fast approaching, the Broncos have been quick to pocket last weekend's victories and prepare for the competitive schedule that lies ahead.

After finishing No. 53 in 2010, and No. 50 last season, Santa Clara will attempt to crack the top 40, in order to receive a bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament.

"Both years, we felt like we didn't quite get where we needed to," said Mills, adding that in 2010 and 2011 the team was within one match of accomplishing their current goal of qualifying for the NCAA tournament.

The Broncos will go head-to-head against Boise State on Saturday for the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Palo Alto, Calif.

Contact Gabe Taylor at gtaylor@scu.edu or (408) 554-4852.