April 15, 2011

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -

Briefly:

This week the Lions will go on the road to close out their regular season with their last match on the road against UCSB. The LMU men's tennis team earned three straight wins over Dartmouth College, Utah and Oregon before falling the UC Irvine this last week. The Lions however bounced back with a strong win over UC Riverside this past Sunday and are 11-9 overall with good momentum going into April and the WCC Conference tournament.

Inside the Lions:

The Lions welcome six new faces to the team this year returning only three veterans from last year. With such a young team, the Lions are talented and have the potential to develop as a team throughout the season. This young talent and fresh competitive drive already was recognized by the conference, as the WCC coaches picked the Lions to finish 4th at the conference tournament this year. Already the Lions have shown promise winning their first three matches of the season including a big win over conference opponents St. Mary's. However after this strong start, the Lions had a few rocky matches until they regained some of their early momentum going 9-3 throughout the month of March into the first week of April. With both big wins and tough losses already this season, the young team will definitely be one to watch throughout the spring.

Lions to Watch:

The Lions most recently finished the month of March with 8-2 and are 11-9 on the season. They went 1-1 this past weekend with a loss to UC Irvine and a victory over UC Riverside. In singles, the Lion's line up has been playing pretty consistent even with such a young team. Freshman Alex Wilton earned the Lions only win against UCLA and was 8-2 in March with wins over Utah, UCLA, Dartmouth, Marist and Gonzaga. Sebastian Bustamante also had a strong singles match against UC Irvine and is now 2-1 over the last three matches. Transfer Nicholas Bjerke's singles play has been key in some of the Lion's wins; he snapped a three match slump with a win over UC Riverside on Sunday. Freshman Tom Price recorded three straight singles wins and was the Lion's only singles win over UC Irvine. In doubles Wilton and Bustamante recorded three straight wins and are 4-1 over the last five matches.