April 16, 2009
2009 WCC Men's Championships Bracket 
Los Angeles, Calif -
Briefly
Loyola Marymount Men's Tennis (5-17) will continue their season at the 2009 WCC Championships this weekend. The Lions open the tournament as the No. 7 seed. They will face No. 2 San Diego at 11:30 am on Friday.
Last Week's Recap
LMU lost their final two matches. The Lions lost to UC Irvine 6-1 and UCSB 6-1. After many postponements, LMU finally took on the Anteaters on Wednesday, April 8. LMU lost the doubles round and five of the six singles matches against UCI. LMU was closing to capturing the doubles point in the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. Ivan Lopez and Nick Von Der Ahe dropped the No. 1 match 8-6 while Borja Malet and Aris Andreasian lost the No. 3 spot by the same score. Lopez got LMU's only victory for the match. Lopez won the No. 1 singles position (6-1, 6-1) against Steven Henderson. Borja Malet was the next closest to capturing a point for LMU. Malet dropped the No. 3 match (2-6, 6-4, 6-1.) LMU suffered the same fate against UCSB on April 11. LMU fell behind early and couldn't catch up. It began with the doubles round. LMU lost all three matches. Johan Berhof and Aram Abgaryan were the closest to capturing a doubles victory. Berhof and Abgaryan dropped the No. 3 match 8-7. Things didn't get better in the singles round. LMU lost five of the six matches in straight sets. Borja Malet was the only Lion to come away with a victory. Malet won the No. 3 match (2-6, 6-4, 7-5.)
About LMU
Once again Loyola Marymount Men's Tennis (3-12) 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.
Loyola Marymount vs. San Diego
This will be the first time the Toreros and the Lions play this season. USD is currently ranked No. 74 in the nation and have a 7-13 overall record. Both USD and LMU lost their final match of the season against UCSB. The Toreros fell to the Gauchos 4-3 while the Lions fell to UCSB 6-1. For their first meeting this season the Lions will sport a new singles and doubles line up. Ivan Lopez will face Dean Jackson in No. 1 singles position. Aram Abgaryan returns to the No. 2 spot against Charl Wolmarans. Borja Malet looks to continue his winning ways in the No. 3 spot against Chris Coetzee. Johan Berhof returns to the No. 4 spot for the championships. He'll face Nikola Bubnic. Renzo Maggi now returns to the singles line-up. He will play the No. 5 position against Tom Wolff. Geza Bazula will hold down the No. 6 position against Nils Schive. In Doubles, Maggi and Malet will play the No. 1 position against Jackson and Schive. Bazula and Berhof will play the No. 2 spot against Wolmarans and Bubnic. Lopez and Nick Von Der Ahe return to the No. 3 position against Juan Devilliers and Coetzee.
Last Year at the WCC Championships
Loyola Marymount was the No. 5 seed at the WCC Championships last year. The Lions dropped their opening match against No. 4 San Francisco (4-0). LMU came back in the consolation round. The Lions advanced to the finals of the consolation bracket with a win over Santa Clara 4-0. LMU placed fifth overall in the conference with a win over Portland in the championships 4-0.
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.
