Feb. 14, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

Briefly
The Loyola Marymount men's tennis team hosts No. 73 BYU this Saturday at the LMU Tennis Center at 12:00 p.m. The Lions were slated to host the Cougars on January 26 to kick-off the spring season, but inclement weather forced the match to be postponed. The following day, LMU will travel to Santa Barbara to face the Gauchos in a 1:00 p.m. match.

LMU This Season
The young Lions will be counting on their five returners for leadership this season. Coming back for LMU are seniors Sam Tadevosian and Jacek Twarowski, along with sophomores, Renzo Maggi, Dmitry Popov and Nick Von Der Ahe. In addition, first-year head coach Brad Sceney also welcomes four freshmen, Aris Andreasian (Glendale, CA), Johan Berhof (Kullavik, Sweden), Ivan Lopez (Almeria, Spain) and Stefan Nikolic (Belgrade, Serbia). "Our newcomers are going to have to be ready to perform straight away and I believe they are," Sceney said. "Also our sophomores are going to have to step up a notch from last year and be ready for plenty of playing time. Our team goal is to finish in the top-4 in the conference, last year we took 7th place." The Lions will have a tough go of it early on as they face nationally ranked programs in three of their first six matches. "We are currently unranked but we have every opportunity to achieve a national ranking with the schedule that we have," Sceney added. "We face two top-20 teams which will be a great test, and six other teams that are ranked, so the opportunities are there". The Lions traveled to Santa Clara to kick-off the season where they captured a 5-2 victory over their West Coast Conference foes. Last weekend, LMU played No. 33 Clemson at USC where they lost 6-1, before returning to the bluff for their home opener against Sacramento State (won 5-2). This week, the Lions face No. 73 BYU in the postponed match from Jan. 26. The following day, they will travel to Santa Barbara to face the Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara. Over the course of the spring 2008 season, the Lions will face a total of eight teams that appear in the national rankings.

Last Match Recap
LMU played 33rd-ranked Clemson last Friday morning at USC, losing 6-1. Clemson dominated in doubles action, taking all three matches from LMU. At the No. 1 spot, Sam Tadevosian and Renzo Maggi were defeated by the duo of Rok Bizjak and Deref DiFazio, 8-3. Johan Berhof and Jacek Twarowski lost at No. 2 to the Tiger's Gera Boryachinskiy and Kevin Galloway, 9-7, and Ivan Lopez and Nick Von Der Ahe were defeated, 8-4 by Kevin Fleck and Ike Belk. In singles, Lopez recorded the only point for the Lions, beating Ike Belk at the No. 3 slot (6-4, 6-2). Twarowski lost at No. 1 to Bizjak (6-3, 7-5), Clemson's Fleck beat Tadevosian in three sets (3-6, 6-1, 6-2) at the No. 2 position. Maggi was defeated by Boryachinskiy (6-3, 6-1), Berhof lost to Alvarez (6-2, 6-3), and Stefan Nikolic lost at No. 6 to DiFazio (6-3, 6-2). The following day, the Lions hosted Sacramento State in their home opener at the LMU Tennis Center. LMU lost the doubles point, but came back to take five of the six singles matches for the win. The Lions won the number two spot in doubles but fell in the one and three spots, giving Sacramento State the doubles point. Jacek Twarowski and Johan Berhof competed at No. 2 and captured the win against Artur Klimenka and Holden Ching of Sacramento State, 8-4. At No. 1, the Hornets duo of Anton Stryhas and Kiryl Harbatsiuk defeated Sam Tadevosian and Renzo Maggi, 8-5, and Stefan Nikolic and Ivan Lopez lost to Ronan Conlon and Sven-David Rueff, 8-2. The Lions dominated in singles play, getting wins at the number two, three, four, five and six spots. At No. 1, 1Twarowski battled Harbatsiuk in a three set war. Twarowski took the first set, but Harbatsiuk came back to take the last two and the win (6-4, 1-6, 6-4). At the No. 2 position, Tadevosian also went into three sets, playing a tough match against Stryhas. Tadevosian won the first set, Stryhas took the second, but Tadevosian came back, taking the third set to win the match (6-4, 2-6, 6-2). In more singles action, Lopez beat Klimenka (6-1, 6-2), Maggi defeated Ching (6-2, 6-4), Berhof stole the match from Rueff (7-6, 6-4) and Nikolic beat Conlon (6-1, 6-2).

About No. 73 BYU
The 73rd-ranked BYU men's tennis team suffered its first loss of the season, a 7-0 sweep by No. 40 Stanford last Friday. Senior Jonathan Sanchez fell to No. 75 Richard Wire (6-1, 6-1). Playing at the No. 1 position, Thomas Shubert also lost to a tough opponent, Alex Clayton, the second-ranked player in the country. The Cougars fell behind early, losing all three of their doubles matches, allowing Stanford to capture the point. After suffering its first loss of the season on Friday, the Cougars came back to defeat Santa Clara 5-2 on Saturday. The duos of Daniel Hwang and Evan Urbina, along with Thomas Shubert and A.J. Young, came out fighting, claiming the doubles point and early lead for BYU. In singles play, BYU's four competing freshmen dominated their respective Santa Clara opponents. Hwang handily defeated Charlie Burke in straight sets (6-0, 6-0), and was soon followed by Young's 6-0, 6-3 victory over SCU's Jay Wong. The Cougars improve to 4-1 on the season. Brad Pearce is in his third year as the head coach of men's tennis after serving as an assitant four years prior.

About UC Santa Barbara
The 37th-ranked University of Washington men's tennis team was too much for UC Santa Barbara men's on last weekend, as the Huskies swept the Gauchos 7-0. The only win for the Gauchos on the afternoon came at No. 3 doubles where the tandem of senior Nigel Barton and junior Bijan Hejazi defeated Brad Bator and Martin Kioldahl, 8-6. The following day the Gauchos rallied back to beat Ball State, 4-3. Santa Barbara fell behind early as the Cardinals were sharp in doubles play. Ball State clinched the doubles point after Cardinals' Eduardo Pavia and Bret Berryman defeated junior Bijan Hejazi and senior Nigel Barton, 8-5. The duo of Josh Finkelstein and Alexander Konigsfeldt captured the only victory for the Gauchos in doubles, winning 8-1 at the No. 2 slot. For singles competition, it was a battle of endurance as five of the six matches were decided by the third set. With Hejazi cruising to a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Ball State's Jose Perdomo, the Gauchos needed to pick up three more to steal a win on the road. Finkelstein and Eric Lee provided two of them, winning 6-2, 4-6, 7-7 (4) and 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 respectively. The Gauchos finally prevailed against Ball State after Konigsfeldt came from behind to defeat Joe Vallee, 5-7, 6-0, 6-1. Santa Barbara is now 1-2 this season. Marty Davis is in his eighth season as head coach of the Gauchos.

Head Coach Brad Sceney
Sceney comes to the bluff after serving as the Director of Tennis at The Paseo Club in Valencia, CA., and enjoying an impressive collegiate career at Pepperdine from 1995-98. "We are excited to add Brad to our LMU family," LMU Athletic Director, Bill Husak said. "Brad has championship experience, both collegiately in the West Coast Conference, and professionally on the ATP Tour. We look forward to watching his leadership in action as he begins his work with our program." An All-American while at Pepperdine, Sceney helped the Waves to a top-10 ranking each of his four seasons in Malibu. His mark of 85 career singles victories is still the Pepperdine record today. In 1996, Sceney won the All-American Doubles Championship. Following his collegiate career, Sceney spent time in the professional tennis ranks, earning rankings in the top-600 in singles and top-300 in doubles after just one year on the ATP Tour. "I am excited to return to the collegiate athletics world," Sceney said. "LMU is a fantastic place to work and play, with a beautiful campus and great facilities that provide the basis for a top tennis program. I look forward to working toward that end with the team and staff." Sceney, a native of Australia, won the 1992 Australian Open Junior Doubles Championship. He was the second-ranked junior in Australia from 1986-1992 and was a member of the country's junior national team. For the last nine years, Sceney has worked with Topseed Tennis Academy, a corporation that owns and operates three tennis clubs and one sports club in Southern California. Hired as a tennis instructor in 1999, Sceney advanced to the title of Director of Tennis at one of the company's sites, The Paseo Club in Valencia, CA. There, he manages a staff of 10 tennis professionals and coordinates the tennis program for approximately 3,500 members.

Lions Spotlight: Sophomore Nick Von Der Ahe
Nick Von Der Ahe is in his second season with LMU tennis. Von Der Ahe won his first match of the 2007-08 season at No. 3 doubles, beating Santa Clara 8-3. His victory insured the Lions the doubles point, as LMU cruised to a 5-2 win. At LMU in the 2006-07 season, the Park City, UT native was impressive in doubles play, posting an 8-2 record as a freshman. He was 6-1 in doubles tournament play with partner Reyniere Roxas, while going 2-4 in singles play. A 2006 honors graduate of Park City High School in Park City, Utah, Von Der Ahe earned four varsity letters while served as captain his senior season. He went an impressive 71-0 in his four seasons, never dropping a match in high school play. He helped his team to four state titles and was a two-time MVP selection while also being named academic all-state. Von Der Ahe was ranked as high as fourth in the USTA Intermountain Region. Nicholas Daniel Von Der Ahe was born January 4, 1988, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the son of Laurie and Chris Von Der Ahe. He is a chemistry major at LMU.