Men's Tennis Posts Third Straight Undefeated WCC Championship

The No. 30-ranked University of San Diego men’s tennis team earned its third consecutive West Coast Conference Tournament Championship by defeating No. 61 Pepperdine 4-0 on April 30 at the Biszants Family Tennis Center in Claremont, Calif.

The match was delayed for just over two hours due to light rain, but it didn’t stop the Toreros (23-7, 9-0 WCC) from claiming their sixth WCC title in program history and extending the program's win streak in WCC matches to 30 straight dating back to April 2013.

"These guys were on top of their games this weekend,” said first-year USD head coach Ryan Keckley. “The last three weeks we really hit our stride and that was evident in the match. The energy, the composure, the mentality, the fight ... everything was impressive!”

San Diego received excellent double play from their top two duos to start the match. No. 89 Uros Petronijevic and Filip Vittek cruised to a 6-0 victory over the Waves' twosome of Pedro Iamachkine and Stefan Menichella. After Jann Kononov and Alex Araouzos fell in the No. 3 match, Jordan Angus and Joshua Page clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 topping of Guilherme Hadlich and Jack Van Slyke.

Petronijevic and Vittek as well as Angus and Page were named to the All-Tournament Team after the match. 

Keckley added, “We competed extremely well to win the doubles point amongst a very hostile Pepperdine crowd.”

In singles the Toreros showed no signs of slowing down as they took five of the six first sets. No. 67 Angus, who sealed the WCC Championship point for San Diego last year, crushed Lautaro Pane 6-0, 6-0 in the No. 2 spot to open up a 2-0 Torero lead.

“I was lucky,” Angus said. “Some days you play great, I had one of those days and won 11 love but it’s not every day, so I appreciate that.”

Fellow seniors Uros Petronijevic and Kononov also captured the moment for the Toreros and sealed the victory over Pepperdine (14-11, 6-3 WCC).

“Our three seniors who clinched the match for us lost five games collectively.” Keckley noted. “These seniors were on a mission to make sure they finished their careers here at USD on top.”

No. 61 Petronijevic landed a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Hadlich in the top spot and gave the Toreros the 3-0 advantage. The senior finishes his USD career with a 6-1 record against Pepperdine opponents.

Kononov also wasted no time in defeating Van Slyke 6-1, 6-2 and earning the championship point. Kononov transferred to the Toreros this spring and took some time to adjust. After a tough start the senior has gone 10-1 and provided crucial depth to this San Diego team.

Alexandros Araouzos was two points away from a victory in the No. 6 spot when play was stopped. Romain Kalaydjian was tied at a set apiece against Menichella and Vittek was behind in the No. 3 spot.

“We came together as a team and finished as a team and that's what I am most proud of,” said Keckley.

The win gives the Toreros their first back-to-back 23-plus win seasons since 1984-85.

“30-0 in the WCC is no small accomplishment and this team deserves all the praise. I am very excited to see where we can go from here," Keckley said.

Toreros open NCAA Tournament Play May 13

The Toreros found out this week that they'll be playing Vanderbilt in a NCAA Tournament first-round playoff match as part of a four-team regional hosted by UCLA at its on-campus Los Angeles Tennis Center, May 13-14. UCLA will play Weber State in the other match. Match times for both are still to be determined.

The 30th-ranked Toreros and the 34th-ranked Commodores (17-13) have met once before this season, a 4-0 USD victory in January at the ITA National Indoor Qualifier in Durham, N.C.

"We've faced Vanderbilt before and we know what we are going to get ourselves into," Keckley said. "They are a very, very good team and well coached. All of our attention is on Vanderbilt as they have been hitting their stride and playing confident tennis during the second half of the season."

This marks USD's sixth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Toreros have played eight of the 64 teams in this year's NCAA Tournament field.

— USD Athletics