Zags Claim First WCC Tourney Victory in Six Years
4/22/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Box Score
SAN DIEGO, Calif.—The Gonzaga University men's tennis team picked up a big conference tournament win Wednesday at the Barnes Tennis Center, sweeping No. 8 seed Santa Clara 4-0 for the Zags' first win at the WCC Championships since 2008.
The ninth-seeded Zags started the opening round match with a come-from-behind win in doubles. At No. 1 doubles, Santa Clara's team of Sam Bertram and Ilya Osintsev the pro set over Vladimir Mijatovic and Hayden Smith 8-2. Two courts down, the GU duo of Sergio Chip and Joey Brandt pulled Gonzaga even with an 8-4 win over opponents Mike Standifer and Max Heerinckx.
On court two, Alvaro Nazal and Nick Kamisar clinched the doubles point in improbable comeback fashion. The pair of seniors won seven of their final nine games, turning a 1-4 deficit into an 8-6 win for the Zags. The victory was the duo's 15th of the year in doubles play.
Feeding off the momentum created at No. 2 doubles, both Chip and Mijatovic came out firing to begin singles play. They both swept their opponents in the first set 6-0, and they captured 6-2 wins in their second sets to give the Zags an early three-point lead. Chip finished first on court five while dispatching Heerinckx, while Mijatovic faced off against Bertram again on court four. Mijatovic now has 18 singles wins on the year, extending his career high, while Chip has posted 17 individual victories in his only year at Gonzaga.
Smith clinched the Zags' win on court three with a two set victory over Mikheil Khmiadashvili. The Breakfast Point, Australia, native clinched both sets by similar 6-2 scores. With the victory, he ran his dual singles record to 14-6, the best on the squad.
Three singles matches were halted once Smith landed the winning point. Atop the lineup, Nazal led Osintsev by a set while both Kamisar and Connor Arend were down a set in their matches at Nos. 2 and 6 singles, respectively. The contest was Arend's first dual match of the season.
"That doubles point was huge," said GU head coach Peter MacDonald. "Alvaro and Nick's comeback set the tone for the rest of the match. The guys responded well to Saturday's loss and everyone stepped up their games today. We're all excited to be moving onto the next round!"
The two teams had faced each other just four days earlier in Santa Clara with the Broncos prevailing 4-2. Both Smith and Chip picked up GU's points during the season finale.
Gonzaga's tournament win was the program's first at the WCC Championships since 2009 when the Zags beat the Broncos 4-1 in a consolation match, which the conference has since done away with. Also, GU hadn't seen an opening round win since the WCC adopted the team dual match format in 1995. This is, however, the first time the tournament has featured an opening round pitting the seventh and 10th seeds against each other on one side of the bracket and the eighth and ninth together on the other.
Gonzaga (11-10) now advances onto the quarterfinal round where top-seeded San Diego awaits the Bulldogs. Those two teams last played April 11 with the Toreros winning 6-1, but the Zags played tough by forcing three third sets and five extended sets. That match will begin at 12:00 p.m., again at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.
