Semifinals Await Nazal after Comeback Victory
10/20/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
PALO ALTO, Calif.—Gonzaga University men's tennis player Alvaro Nazal continued his run at the ITA Northwest Regionals Sunday, coming from behind to grab a victory in the quarterfinal round at Taube Family Tennis Stadium in Palo Alto, Calif.
Nazal reached the regional semifinals by taking down Nolan Paige of host school Stanford. Paige won the first set via a tiebreak 6-7 (6) and took a 2-4 lead in the second, going up a break at the crossover. At that point, Nazal made some adjustments to his game, forcing Paige to begin making errors and giving up points. Those adjustments gave Nazal the next three games for a 5-4 lead, and he held on to win the second set 7-5.
The Zag then stormed out to a 5-0 lead in the third set, breaking Paige's serve a few times along the way. The Stanford player held serve to put the match at 5-1, but Nazal held back to clinch the set at 6-1, booking his ticket to the semifinal. Nazal will now face WCC foe Ashot Khacharyan of Santa Clara in the semis for a spot in the tournament's final.
"It's been a great experience to watch him take one match at a time and go out there and play his best tennis," said Gonzaga men's tennis head coach Peter MacDonald. "He's made great adjustments in-match as well, and he plays mentally tough throughout every match. It's fun to watch how he bounces back and reacts positively from being down a break and then turns that into a win."
The long match Sunday was Nazal's third three-set match of the tournament He played three sets against Stanford's Yale Goldberg on Friday and went three against Washington's Emmett Egger Saturday as well.
"All the conditioning, all the weights, all the off-court stuff is paying off in this tournament," said MacDonald. "The track workouts, the circuits, they've all helped him get through the series of long three-set matches."
Two other Gonzaga players played a singles match Sunday as Vicente Varas and Joey Brandt both competed in the consolation bracket. Varas took both sets in a match against Eastern Washington's Luke Ness. The junior breezed through the first set with a score of 6-1 and took the second by a score of 6-4 to end his time in Palo Alto. Brandt won four total games during his singles contest, a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Portland's Ashwin Sharma.
Just one Zag doubles team competed Sunday as Brandt and Vladimir Mijatovic played a tough pair of Eastern Washington Eagles. The Gonzaga duo beat Ness and Rendell Burghart in a tiebreak 8-7 (4) to end their involvement in the ITA Northwest Regionals.
While the rest of the Gonzaga men's tennis team returns to Spokane, Coach MacDonald and Nazal will remain in northern California to see out the rest of the ITA Northwest Regionals. Nazal takes the court for his semifinal matchup at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 19, again at Taube Family Tennis Stadium. The match will be streamed live on Stanford's website at http://streamingtennis.com/Cardinal/.
