No. 69 LMU Sinks Postseason Hopes for Santa Clara Men’s Tennis

Ashot Khacharyan

LOS ANGELES - The Broncos men's tennis team needed a victory Saturday in order to keep its postseason dreams alive but those hopes were dashed after a 4-2 defeat at Loyola Marymount University.

Santa Clara (10-12, 3-5) was able to cut the deficit to just one point on two separate occasions but the 69th-ranked Lions (11-9, 4-4) finished the deal with a three-set victory on Court 2, leapfrogging the Broncos in the conference standings and eliminating them from the six-team conference tournament.

"Winning on the road in this conference is always a challenge," said head coach Derek Mills. "Even
though we weren't able to punch our ticket, I am proud of the fight that our young squad showed all season long."

Leading 3-2 in the match, LMU's Cristobal Rivera was able to come back from a first set drubbing to upend Robert Seby by a score of 6-1, 6-4 in sets two and three, clinching the Lions' 11^th victory of the year.

Prior to the clincher, the Lions and Broncos traded the first four singles matches. Andrew Gu's two-match winning streak came to an end on Court 3 after suffering a 6-3, 6-0 defeat to Errol Smith. Next door on Court 4, Connor Garnett came through with a 6-3, 6-3 victory to break his three-match slide and earn his 10^th victory while playing at the fourth position.

Santa Clara's Sebastien Mathieu was unable to break his losing skid, falling 6-2, 6-2 on Court 6 but Ashot Khacharyan paid LMU back immediately after with a 7-6, 7-6 winner at the No. 1 position. With the victory, Khacharyan is now alone at the No. 9 spot on Santa Clara's all-time singles wins list with 61 victories to his name.

The Broncos will close out their regular season this  afternoon at home when they host the WCC-leading University of San Diego.