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| Recap, photo courtesy of University of San Diego |
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The No. 30 San Diego men’s tennis team (21-7, 9-0 WCC) completed a perfect WCC regular-season capped off by a trio of road wins last weekend to clinch the No. 1 seed in this weeks WCC tournament. The Toreros will await the winner of the first-round matchup between No. 4 seed Pacific (14-12, 6-3 WCC) and No. 5 seed Portland (15-7, 6-3 WCC). San Diego’s match will take place at 10 a.m. on Friday at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center in Claremont, Calif.
The WCC Championship field is rounded out by No. 2 seed BYU (18-6, 7-2 WCC) followed by No. 3 Pepperdine (12-10, 6-3 WCC) and No. 6 Loyola Marymount (12-9, 5-4 WCC).
WCC ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM ANNOUNCED: The Toreros had a strong presence on the WCC All-Conference teams this year with four players making the roster. Uros Petronijevic and Filip Vittek earned first team honors for both their singles and doubles play. Jordan Angus is also a first team singles performer and received a second team doubles honor along with Joshua Page.
This is Petronijevic’s second nod to the singles first team as he earned the honor in 2015 as well. He
earned second team honors in 2014 and was an honorable mention in 2013. His first team doubles honor is the first recognition for his pairs prowess as he and Vittek tallied an excellent 10-3 record this season.
Vittek has been a doubles star his entire career at USD as this is his third first team honor for his doubles play. He earned the honor last year with Angus and coupled with Clarke Spinosa for the nod in 2014. He was also a first team singles performer last season and an honorable mention in 2014.
As a senior Angus has been a staple for the Toreros leading the team in wins for both singles (23) and doubles (24) competition. Angus earned second team singles and first team doubles recognition last year.
Page transferred to San Diego this season and made an instant impact on a stacked team. His second team honor is the fist all-conference nod of his career.
KECKLEY TALKS TO THE SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE: Head coach Ryan Keckley, along with senior Jordan Angus, talked with the San Diego UT’s Tod Leonard about the Toreros’ rise to the top of the WCC. You can read more here about how the first-year coach overcame the challenges of taking over one of California’s premiere tennis programs.
LAST TIME OUT: San Diego picked up wins over No. 70 Pacific, Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara last weekend during a three-game swing in Northern California. The three wins stretched out the Toreros winning streak to 11 matches. Over the streak they’ve outscored opponents 49-3 and shutout eight opponents.
Joshua Page earned three victories over the weekend and improved his WCC record to 4-0 this season. Alex Araouzos and Jaan Kononov picked up two wins in their doubles debuts on Saturday and Sunday.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS: The Tigers rebounded to defeat BYU 4-0 on Saturday just one day after suffering a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Toreros. The other two WCC defeats have come to Portland (4-1) and Loyola Marymount (4-3). Pacific holds a 4-9 record against ranked opponents and is 4-2 in neutral site matches.
Senior No. 113 Sem Verbeek has been a star at the top of the Tigers’ lineup with a 18-2 record in the No. 1 singles spot. Verbeek, a Netherlands native, is 2-1 against ranked opponents this season and comes into the match on a nine-match winning streak. Miguel Diaz (12-11) and Daniel Alameh (11-8) are the other Tigers with double-digit wins in dual match play. Verbeek and Jose Chamba form the nations’ No. 85 doubles pair. The duo is 7-3 at the top of the order and 1-2 against ranked opponents.
Ryan Redondo enters his sixth season at Pacific. The San Diego State alum has led the team to back-to-back WCC semifinal appearances and 27 dual match victories over the past two seasons.
SCOUTING THE PILOTS: Portland has been idle for over a week now with their most recent match being their 4-1 win over Pacific on April 17. Their three conference losses came against San Diego, BYU and Pepperdine. The Pilots earned a perfect 10-0 record at home this season while they went 4-3 in neutral matches.
The Pilots have proven depth on their roster with all six of their starters earning double-digit wins this season. Pierre Garcia leads the team with 15 wins. The sophomore is 14-6 in the No. 3 spot this season. At the top of the lineup Mike Pervolarakis is 13-5 with a 2-0 record over ranked opponents. He and Mathieu Garcia are 9-3 at the top of the doubles rotation.
Aaron Gross is in his 19th year as the Pilots’ head coach. He has led the team to a 212-190-1 record throughout his time in Portland and has led the team to a winning record in four of the last five seasons. The Pilots finished seventh in the WCC last season.
CONFERENCE DOMINANCE: The Toreros are two-time defending conference champions and have not lost a WCC match in the last two seasons. Currently, the Toreros are on a 27-0 stretch in conference. The feat is even more impressive when you consider that the San Diego has shut out their opponent in 15 of those matches.
It has now been three consecutive regular-seasons that the Toreros have not dropped a WCC match. San Diego has out-scored opponents by a total of 134-17 over the past 27 matches. Portland has not earned a point against the Toreros since 2012 when USD topped the Pilots 6-1.
MADE TO BE BROKEN: Despite having three partners this season Jordan Angus has proven to be a skilled and versatile doubles threat for the Toreros. The senior now boasts the fourth-best doubles-winning percentage, .719, in USD history.
He leads the San Diego squad with a 24-7 record in double play this season. The 24 wins bests his mark from last season and ties for the fourth-best win total in a single season. With strong performances in the WCC tournament Angus could have one of the three best seasons in Torero history. His .774 winning percentage this season is sixth all-time for a single Torero season.
Uros Petronijevic has now entered the top-10 all-time with 84 career singles wins at San Diego. The senior has picked up 19 wins this season and could earn his third consecutive 20-win season with a win in the WCC tournament. He is 21-5 over his four years against WCC opponents.
Filip Vittek is also having an outstanding year in doubles play. The junior is now 64-29 all-time in doubles competition, which ties him for the fourth-most wins all-time at USD. He has also increased his winning percentage to .688 placing him behind Angus with the sixth-best doubles winning percentage as a Torero. His 23 wins this season is tied for sixth for a single season.
Together Angus and Vittek have a 13-6 mark this season bringing their wins total to 33, good enough to rank third all-time amongst Torero duos.
RANKINGS: No. 61 Uros Petronijevic continues to be the top Torero in the rankings. The senior has earned 14 wins in the top spot for the Toreros and has beaten six ranked opponents this year.
Senior captain No. 67 Jordan Angus is 12-4 in dual matches this season. Angus has earned 23 victories this season, just four fewer than his total of 24 last season.
Angus and Filip Vittek hold a No. 43 ranking for their outstanding doubles play despite being spit up for the better part of the season. The duo is 3-3 in dual matches this season.
Vittek is also ranked along with Petronijevic at No. 89. The pair is 10-3 this season and 3-1 in WCC play.
MEET THE COACH: Head Coach Ryan Keckley begins his USD tenure this season after spending last three seasons at Princeton University as an assistant coach. Prior to that Keckley served under Brett Masi here at USD.
Keckley has led his team to 21 wins this season. The 21 wins is the second-best win total for a first-year coach behind Ed Collins’ 27 in 1980. Masi totaled 12 wins in his first season in 2010 and Tom Hagedon earned 13 in his first season.
Keckley played collegiately at Notre Dame before moving on to the coaching ranks. He had a strong presence in the ITA doubles rankings while earning 81 victories throughout his career, third-most all-time for the Irish. Keckley also preformed well in the classroom earning Big East Academic All-Star honors three times while also adding three All-Big East Tournament team doubles recognition.
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