SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The University of San Francisco men's tennis team lost the back end of its Bay Area road swing Saturday afternoon, falling to No. 64 Santa Clara, 4-3, at the Degheri Tennis Center.
Santa Clara jumped on top early on as the doubles tandem of Osintsev/Lamble handed
Bernardo Saraiva and
Nils Skajaa their first loss since taking over the No. 1 spot on its way to taking the doubles point from the Dons. The early 1-0 deficit marked just the second time this season and first time in 15 matches that USF has lost the doubles point.
USF (10-7, 2-4 WCC) came back to tie the Broncos (14-9, 2-4) at three apiece after getting singles victories from
Bernardo Saraiva,
Germain Bahri and
William Schumacher.
Skajaa found himself playing the decisive match for the second consecutive contest at No. 3 singles, forcing a third set before eventually falling 5-7, 6-4, 4-6 to the Broncos' Matt Kecki.
"This was another tight WCC battle, but this time it didn't go our way,” said USF coach
Peter Bartlett. “We are still competing well as a team but unfortunately our doubles play let us down today. We were very sloppy on the basics and it ended up costing us the edge going into singles and ultimately the match. We had an idea that the singles matches would be split and the doubles point could decide it."
USF closes out the regular season with back-to-back home matches against Portland and Gonzaga on April 19 and 20, respectively.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
DOUBLES:
1. Ilya Osintsev / John Lamble (SCU) def.
Bernardo Saraiva /
Nils Skajaa (USF) 8-3
2. Matt Kecki / Tom Pham (SCU) def.
Thai Tu /
Germain Bahri (USF) 8-6
3. Jonathon Knowlman /
Richard Bucalem (USF) vs. Eugene Muchynski / Tomasz Soltyka (SCU) DNF
Order of finish: 1, 2
SINGLES:
1. No. 82 John Lamble (SCU) def.
Thai Tu (USF) 6-3, 6-2
2. Bernardo Saraiva (USF) def. Ilya Osintsev (SCU) 6-3, 6-1
3. Matt Kecki (SCU) def.
Nils Skajaa (USF) 7-5, 4-6, 6-4
4. Tom Pham (SCU) def.
Rich Van Hout (USF) 7-5, 6-4
5. William Schumacher (USF) def. Tomasz Soltyka (USF) 6-4, 7-6
6. Germain Bahri (USF) def. Eugene Muchynski (SCU) 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
Order of finish: 2, 6, 1, 4, 5, 3
FINAL SCORE: SCU 4, USF 3
