May 3, 2001

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Briefly... The Loyola Marymount men's tennis team concluded its 2001 campaign in similar fashion with a fifth place finish in the West Coast Conference Championships, duplicating their finish from the previous two seasons. However, the Lions season is one of their best in recent history. With a 14-12 overall record, the Lions finish with the most wins since the 1990 season when they finished 15-8. It is the fourth most wins in program history. LMU finished 5-1 in conference play and won seven of their final eight matches to end the season on a hot streak.

Between the Lines... Unlike the 2000 season when senior Carsten Bitschkus became the Lions' all-time single victories leader with 24, LMU did not have a break-away season by any one player. The Lions, however, featured four players with more than 10 victories on the season. Playing in his first season with the Lions, sophomore Johannes Asuja led the team with a 13-6 record. Youth was the key for the Lions, as the other double-digit winners were all underclassman. Freshman Beau Berglund finished 10-14, while sophomores Ryan Gerstner and Iman Nilipour finished with records of 11-12 and 11-5, respectively.

The WCC Championships... Top-seeded Pepperdine won the WCC men's tennis championship for the 11th consecutive year, beating San Diego 4-2 in the title match Sunday afternoon in Malibu. The Waves took two straight doubles contests to earn the doubles point, then secured the match with three victories in singles play. With the win, the Waves earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA championships. Final men's WCC championship standings: 1. Pepperdine 2. San Diego 3. Santa Clara 4. Portland 5. Loyola Marymount 6. Saint Mary's 7. San Francisco 8. Gonzaga

Match Recap The Lions opened the season with losses to local rivals UC Irvine (7-0) and UC Santa Barbara (5-2), as the youthful squad went through growing pains. However, on their first major road trip of the season, the Lions earned their first dual match victory, defeating Belmont University 4-3. The Lions would drop their next four of five matches, losing to highly ranked Texas-Arlington, Arkansas, Arizona and Arizona State. They would defeat Northern Arizona 4-2. The Lions would then respond with three straight wins, defeating Portland in West Coast Conference play, 4-3, and then sweeping Rutgers and Cal Lutheran. The Lions' then lost a heartbreaker to Bowling Green in Las Vegas, 4-3. They would respond with a 7-0 victory over Metro State in Denver, Colo., before losing to Denver and Air Force. The Lions returned home for a pair of matches against Dartmouth on March 21 and Princeton on March 24. The Lions cruised to a convincing 6-1 win over Dartmouth, winning all but the number two doubles and number one singles. Sophomores Iman Nilipour and Johannes Asuja both continued their winning streaks (7 and 4). The Lions saw victory taken from them against Princeton, as they fell to the Tigers 4-3. Asuja won his fifth straight match with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 win at number three singles. A three-match road trip took the Lions to the Pacific Northwest. They started with No. 5 Washington on March 31, who showed they are deserving of the ranking with a 7-0 win. The Lions came back the next day on April 1 to defeat Gonzaga in conference play, 6-1. The Lions moved to 2-0 in conference play, winning both number one and number two doubles for the doubles point. Every singles match went the minimum two sets except for Erik Nelson-Kortland's match at number six singles. Nelson-Kortland came from behind to defeat Shaun Whitney, 4-6, 6-5, 7-6. The Lions finished the trip with a convincing 7-0 win over Portland State. In the 5-2 win over Azusa Pacific, the Lions won their third straight and are within a match of .500. Iman Nilipour returned to action and won his eighth straight. LMU earned a 7-0 sweep of UC Riverside to improve to 11-11 on the season. Only one match went to three sets as Riverside continues to search for its first win of the season. Nilipour won his ninth straight match of the season. The Lions concluded conference play with a solid win at home against San Francisco. The 6-1 victory was led by doubles team Carsten Bitschkus and Leopold Graeubig who came from behind 5-2 to win 9-7. The Lions never looked back for the win. Nilipour won his 10th straight. LMU started the WCC Championships as the #6 seed and lost to #3 seed Santa Clara in the opening round, 4-1. The lone Lions' point came from Erik Nelson-Kortland who won at number six singles, 7-5, 6-3. The Lions would close out the conference tournament with two straight wins, defeating Gonzaga 4-0 and Saint Mary's in the final day, 4-1.

Asuja on Fire Johannes Asuja became the first Lion to reach double-digit wins on the season, winning his 10th match of the year against Princeton. He finishes the season 13-6 on the season with a win against Saint Mary's and a loss against Santa Clara. He finished with wins in 13 of his last 16 matches. He was also part of the team's hottest doubles team. He and Beau Berglund concluded the season at 13-6 on the season and led the team in double wins. The doubles team won 11 of their last 14 matches. In conference play, they defeated Gonzaga's duo of Timo Barry and Shaun Whitney for the second time on the season, 9-8 (8-6). They also won their doubles match against Saint Mary's to help the Lions to fifth place in the conference.

On a Roll... Sophomore Iman Nilipour was the second Lion to reach 10 wins on the season, finishing the season with a record of 11-5. He led the team with a .688 winning percentage while winning his last 10 single contests. He has also won eight matches in doubles play, primarily teaming with Ryan Gerstner and Erik Nelson-Kortland.

Record Books... Senior Carsten Bitschkus completed his four-year career with a 9-13 record in his final campaign. With the nine additional wins to his career total, Bitschkus will leave LMU as its all-time wins leader with a career record of 70-47. He has 14 more wins than Jorge Aguilar, who sits at second on that list. He is also sixth in the program's record books with a .598 winning percentage. His 24-13 record as a junior and 23-13 mark as a sophomore are ranked one-two in LMU history. His 24 victories are tied with Jan Aulehe's 24-13 mark of 1998 for the best single season finish. His 13 double victories in 2001 moved him to 11th all-time with 26 career double wins. Along with doubles partner Leopold Graeubig, the tandem has recorded 23 double wins over the past two seasons, ranking them second all-time for victories by a doubles team.