CLAREMONT, Calif. – Santa Clara men's tennis will play for the West Coast Conference Championship after its 4-0 sweep over Gonzaga in the semifinals of the conference tournament on Friday.
Santa Clara (17-7), which will face the number one seed San Diego in Saturday's finals, got the match clincher from
Vasileios Iliopoulos, who downed Vincent Rettke, 6-3, 6-2 on court No. 3. First serve of the WCC Championship match is at 1:30 p.m. PT.
The Broncos got off to a strong start in doubles play, getting the clincher from Iliopoulos and
Kamran Khan over Hunter Egger and Kyle Everly, 7-6 (7-1) in a tightly contested match on court three.
With the double point momentum on its side, Santa Clara rolled to three consecutive straight-set wins in singles action.
Santiago Hinojosa put the Broncos on the brink of a clinch with a 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Egger before Iliopoulos put the finishing touches on the victory.
Facing the Toreros in Saturday's championship match, Santa Clara will have an opportunity to avenge a regular season loss for the third consecutive match.
In Thursday's opening round of the conference tournament, the Broncos beat BYU 4-3 after losing to the Cougars on the road in the WCC opener. And Gonzaga (16-8) handed the Broncos its first home loss of the season back on March 30.
Saturday's championship match is the fourth time the Broncos will play for the WCC tournament title since the tournament moved to a team dual match format in 1995. Santa Clara was the runner-up each time in 2000, 2010 and 2011.
