No. 55 Santa Clara Snaps Men's Tennis Home Win Streak

PORTLAND, Ore. The No. 55 Santa Clara men's tennis team handed Portland its first home loss Friday with a 5-2 decision at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center. Portland finishes the regular season 9-9 overall, 3-5 in WCC games and 8-1 at home this year. The Broncos improve to 16-6 and 3-4 in league play.

Portland took the early lead by winning the doubles point. Santa Clara won 6-3 at No. 1, but the Pilot tandem of Nicolas Ocana and Nikola Keremedchiev took a 6-2 win at No. 2, before Oscar Brown and Stefan Skobelev took the point with a 6-3 win at No. 2 .3.

Santa Clara regained the momentum by winning the first wave of singles. Christian Lerby and Luca Lemaitre Vilchis won in straight sets at No. 1 and No. 3, while Guillaume Dalmasso held off Nicolas Ocana 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 at No. 2.

The Broncos qualified when Keremedchiev was forced to retire early in the opening set due to injury at No. 5 singles.

Maxim Groysman picked up another win for Portland at No. 4 with a 7-5, 6-2 decision over Sebastian Buxman. Skobelev retired late in a third-set super tiebreak against Alexander Watanabe Eriksson to give SCU the final point.

“Credit to Santa Clara, they were the better team today,” Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. “We've played some good doubles matches and some decent tennis in places. Max has put in another good performance. It's just tough at the moment because the top four teams in the conference have been our last four matches, with today being the only was home. We finished.” with four consecutive defeats, so our confidence is taking a big hit. Hopefully we can get into the conference tournament and make some noise.”

The Pilots will now wait to see if they will qualify for the 2024 WCC tournament, which will be held April 23-25 ​​at the Aztec Tennis Center on the campus of San Diego State University. The top six teams in the rankings qualify for the tournament.

#55 Santa Clara 5, Portland 2
Portland, Oregon (Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center)
April 19, 2024

Singles
1. #118 Christian Lerby (SCU) def. Oscar Brown (POR) 6-3, 6-4
2. Guillaume Dalmasso (SCU) def. Nicolas Ocana (POR) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
3. Luca Lemaitre Vilchis (SCU) def. Luka Vukovic (POR) 6-3, 6-4
4. Maxim Groysman (POR) def. Sebastian Buxman (SCU) 7-5, 6-2
5. Luke Maskow (SCU) def. Nikola Keremedchiev (POR) 3-1, eliminated
6. Alexander Watanabe Eriksson (SCU) def. Stefan Skobelev (POR) 7-6 (3), 6-7 (8), 6-7, retired

Double

1. Dalmasso/Lerby (SCU) def. Vukovic/Nicholas Tvedt (POR) 6-3
2. Ocana/Keremedchiev (POR) final. Buxman/Mascow (SCU) 6-2
3. Brown/Skobelev (POR) final. Tiago Boschmans/Lemaitre (SCU) 6-3

Match Notes:

Santa Clara 16-6, 3-4 WCC; National ranking #55
Portland 9-9, 3-5 WCC
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (3,1,2,5,4,6)

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