Feb. 25, 2009
Complete Release in PDF Format 
Los Angeles, Calif - After a rain out and a tough loss last weekend, LMU Men's Tennis looks to capture their first win against Middle Tennessee State and Boston College. The Lions will take on the Blue Riders this Friday and come back Monday to face the Eagles at the 1:30 p.m. at LMU Tennis Center
Last Week's Recap
LMU traveled up north to take on WCC foes St. Mary’s and San Francisco and Pacific University last weekend. The Lions fell to the Tigers 6-1, to the Gaels on Saturday in a nail biter 4-3, and was rained out the following day against San Francisco. Against Pacific, the Lions lost all three doubles matches and won one singles match. Junior Renzo Maggi captured LMU’s only point. Maggi, a Rossmoor, California native, defeated the Tiger's Vegerd Veskimagi at the No. 3 singles position in extra sets. Maggi won the first set 6-3, Veskimagi came back in the second to take the second set 6-4 but Renzo held out for the win in the final set 6-4. The Lions held their own against the Gaels in singles. Aram Abgaryan, Johan Berhof and Renzo Maggi pulled off victories against SMC. Abgaryan captured the No. 2 spot defeated St. Mary’s Maxime Olivian 6-2, 7-5. Berhof and Maggi won the No. 3 and No. 5 positions. Maggi defeated Achim Christener 6-2, 6-3 and Berhof beat Yousse El Bouzkouri 6-1, 6-2. Aram Abgaryan and Renzo Maggi also claimed LMU’s lone doubles victory. The pair defeated Gavin Leon and Stev Dawson-Roberts 8-3 in the No. 2 position.
About LMU
Once again the Lions will be sporting a young line up this season. Veteran juniors Renzo Maggi, Dmitry Popov and Nick Von Der Ahe will lead them. "We have a young group of guys this year. " Maggi said. "But we'll definitely make it happen. " Georgia Southern transfer, Junior Borja Malet will also provide experience to LMU's line up. Malet earned second-team All-Southern conference last season for the Eagles playing the No. 1 doubles position as well as splitting time between the no. 2 and no. 3 singles position finishing with a 16-16 record overall. Paired with Emmanuel Nkoueleu, the tandem recorded an 18-10 overall record and a 5-3 record against SoCon opponents. Also making an impact for the Lions will be key returner Ivan Lopez. After transferring from Freed-Hardeman University, Lopez, an Almeria, Spain native finished the 2007-2008 season at LMU with an overall singles record of 21-13 finishing second team All-WCC. " We have a lot of depth this year. "Assistant coach Renouk Wijemanne said. " But what sets Ivan a part is that, especially from last season, he played well in big matches. If he plays to his potential, he could make it to nationals." Expect fellow underclassmen Johan Berhof, Aram Abgaryan, Aris Andreasian and Geza Bazula to make an impact for the Lions. After finishing 3-10 in singles matches last season, sophomore Aris Andreasian has already showed strong improvement from the previous year. Andreasian started the fall season with a bang, going undefeated in singles play at the UC Irvine Tournament October 10-12. Andreasian went 5-0 on the weekend, defeating opponents from No. 63 UC Irvine, San Diego, and UC Riverside. Newcomer Geza Bazula has also showed promise for the Lions. Bazula won the consolation bracket of the ITA Regional Tournament in Malibu this October. He defeated opponents from No. 4 UCLA, No. 63 UC Irvine, Cal Poly and UC Riverside. The freshman from Budapest also faced and defeated fellow teammate Ivan Lopez in the semi finals of the consolation bracket.
About Middle Tennessee State
Middle Tennessee State is the No. 66 team in the country. They have a record of 4-3 overall this season. This past weekend, the Blue Raiders went 2-1, defeating No. 78 Old Dominion, No. 38 East Tennessee State and falling to No. 33 VCU. MTSU lost to the VCU 5-2 on February 22. The Blue Raiders started off the match by losing the doubles point. Junior Victor Melo and Sophomore John Peers were the closest to capturing a doubles win for MTSU. The pair fell to VCU's Benjamin Bouhana and Emil Lindgren, 9-8 (2). In singles action, Middle Tennessee State captured two wins. Melo and Senior Robert McKenzie captured the No.1 and No. 2 positions McKenzie defeated Martin Schulhauser 6-4, 6-3 to remain undefeated on the season. Melo won his match 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 over Bouhana.
About Boston College
Boston College Men's Tennis is currently 7-3 on the season. The Eagles began the spring with a five-match winning streak. BC defeated Brown (5-2), Davidson (6-1), Colgate (6-1), Boston University (7-0), and a win at the ECAC Team Indoors at Harvard University. This past week the Eagles went 1-2, falling to ACC rivals Virginia and Virginia Tech, 7-0, and defeating Dartmouth 5-2. Against the Hokies, Boston College took home one doubles match. The pair of Thomas Nolan and Erik Kreutzer defeated Virginia Tech 9-8. The Eagles almost got a singles point with freshman Alex Skinner. Skinner dropped the first set 6-7 took the second 7-6 but couldn't pull off the third, falling 10-4 in the No. 4 singles position. The next day against the Cavaliers was not much better. The Eagles did not record a single win against Virginia. The closest Boston College came was the No. 3 singles match. Freshman Akash Muppidi fell in three set tiebreaker 6-2, 4-6, 10-5. The Eagles bounced back to their winning ways against the Big Green of Dartmouth. Boston College captured all three doubles matches as well as four singles matches. In singles, junior Thomas Nolan dominated the No. 1 position defeating Dartmouth's Daniel Freeman in straight sets. Freshman Akash Muppidi had another strong showing. Muppidi won his match in three sets, winning the first and dropping the second to force an extra set victory.
Head Coach Brad Sceney
Head Coach Brad Sceney is in his second season with LMU Men's Tennis. Under Sceney's reign, the Lions finished 5th in the WCC record in his first season with an 11-13 record overall. Sceney came 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. 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. 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 managed a staff of 10 tennis professionals and coordinated the tennis program for approximately 3,500 members.
