April 19, 2004

Boise, Idaho - Loyola Marymount men's tennis concluded play at the Boise State Quadrangular Sunday with a 5-2 win over West Coast Conference opponent University of Portland. The Lions took the doubles point Saturday night, before concluding the victory with the singles win Sunday morning.

After splitting the first two doubles matches, winning at No. 1 8-4 and falling 8-1 at No. 3, the doubles point came down to new duo Carlos Malet and Beau Berglund at No. 2. Portland served for the match at 8-7, but the Lions were able to break back to force a tiebreaker. After trailing 6-4, Malet and Berglund saved two match points and went on to win 8-6 and secure the doubles point. "That was a huge momentum shift right there," Head Coach Nik DeVore said. "Whoever lost the doubles point Saturday night was going to have to sleep on it, and try to rally to win four out of six singles matches the next day. Carlos, playing doubles for only the fourth time this season, came through for us in a big way this weekend. He played some phenomenal doubles, especially under immense pressure against Boise State and Portland."

Berglund and Malet are now 4-0 as a team.

The Lions lost at No. 1 and No. 3 singles, but were able to secure straight set wins at every other spot. "All four of our guys who came up with singles wins today played with a ton of confidence," DeVore said. "I was especially pleased with the way Ashton and Beau performed. Beau played one of his most consistent matches of the season, and Ashton really rebounded well after losing in doubles to play some very confident singles.

The Lions, after starting the season 3-5, went on to win 10 of their last 13 matches to close out the season. With a final regular season record of 13-8, the team now prepares for the West Coast Conference Championships, to be held next weekend at Santa Clara.

"Winning two out of three on the road trip to end the regular season should give us a great deal of confidence going into the WCC Tournament next weekend in Santa Clara," DeVore said.

-GO LIONS-

LMU 5, PORTLAND 5

Doubles
1. Wojnarowicz/Phillips (LMU) def. Borvanov/Kennel (UP) 8-4
2. Berglund/Malet (LMU) def. Redpath/Sithole (UP) 9-8
3. Borchard/Jager (UP) def. Terrien/Politanoff (LMU) 9-8

Singles
1. Roman Borvanov (UP) def. Linas Cicenas (LMU) 6-1, 6-2
2. Nico Terrien (LMU) def. James Redpath (UP) 6-3, 6-4
3. Quinn Borchard (UP) def. Michael Wojnarowicz 7-5, 4-6, 11-9
4. Beau Berglund (LMU) def. Peter Miskovic (UP) 6-0, 6-1
5. Matt Phillips (LMU) def. Colby Jager (UP) 6-0, 6-4
6. Ashton Politanoff (LMU) def. Thabani Sithole (UP) 6-2, 6-0