March 4, 2004

Los Angeles, Calif. - Loyola Marymount men's tennis defeated UC San Diego 4-3 in a makeup match Wednesday at the Home Depot Center. The match-up, which was originally set for February 21, was rescheduled due to inclement weather in the Los Angeles area. Michael Wojnarowicz, Nico Terrien, and Matt Phillips led a comeback charge that would lead the Lions to the victory over No. 13 UCSD (DII).

LMU took an early lead, winning the doubles match-ups at the No. 1 and No. 3 spots for the doubles point. Junior Beau Berglund teamed with freshman Linas Cicenas to defeat UCSD's Jeff Wilson and Sameer Chopra 8-5, a doubles duo that ranks third in the nation in the Division II polls. The Lions also claimed a doubles victory at the No. 3 spot, as the 5-0 freshmen team of Terrien and Ashton Politanoff defeated Nick Morton and Brent Molden 8-6 to move their record to 6-0.

Despite the 1-0 lead, LMU dropped three singles matches, including two to two of the nation's top 40 Division II singles players, to fall behind 1-3. When Lions in the other three singles matches each dropped their first sets, "things didn't look good for us," Head Coach Nik DeVore said.

But Wojnarowicz, Phillips, and Terrien were able to turn things around for the Lions. Wojnarowicz fought back in the second set, playing some very confident tennis to win 6-1 and then closed out the third set 6-2 over Wilson.

Phillips and Terrien had an even tougher route, as both fell behind 5-2 in the second sets of their matches after losing the first. Phillips worked his way back into the match against Molden by winning five straight games to take the second set, and then held on to win 7-5 in the third. Terrien saved five match points in the second set before coming back to defeat No. 17 Bryan Swatt in a tiebreaker (7-3) and then closed out the match for the Lions 6-2 in the third set.

"I knew this was going to be a difficult match for us to win going in," DeVore said. "I'm really proud of the way Nico, Matt, and Mike gutted out their matches today. We were down and out, but three of our guys never said die and were able to claw their way back."

-GO LIONS-