Nov. 11, 2009

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - This past weekend the LMU men's Tennis team competed in the 53rd Southern California Intercollegiate Championships hosted by UCLA. For the first time ever at this tournament, LMU had a team make it to the finals in doubles play. Junior Ivan Lopez and Otto Sauer teamed up to advance to the tournament finals finding a consistent rhythm and team chemistry that made for a successful combination.

In singles play, Borja Malet defeated Matthew Bolsius of Azuza Pacific to advance to the second round of play for the tournament. Later in doubles Borja Malet and Renzo Maggi defeated UCSB to advance to the quarterfinals where they faced the future tournament doubles champions Matt Brooklyn and Kallim Stewart from UCLA. Matched up against two of the top seeded tournament players, both Ivan Lopez and Otto Sauer were eliminated in their first round of singles play. However in doubles play Lopez and Sauer teamed up for a winning combination advancing to the doubles final. After they defeated conference opponents Hugh Clarke and Finn Tearney from Pepperdine to advance to the quarterfinals they then defeated UC Irvine to face top seeded Nick Meister and Holden Seguso from UCLA in the doubles tournament championship.

Ivan Lopez said, "I had to play the number one seed in singles and lost in the first round, but then in doubles Otto and I made it to the finals for the first time. We really made a lot of improvements--we changed up our partners and put in a lot of doubles practice these past couple weeks. We were able to find a good combination and good way to play together."

The LMU racquet men's success this past weekend shows that they have been working hard to stay competitive and improve their doubles play before spring season conference play. The Southern California Championships is a competitive tournament hosting the top players from UCLA, UC Riverside, Pepperdine, UCSD, Azuza Pacific University, USC, UC Irvine and University of San Diego.

Head Coach Brad Sceney said, "It was the first time an LMU team has made it to the final of this event. With wins over Pepperdine and UCLA along the way to the final, the guys showed they can match it with the top teams in the country. I hope this is a springboard to a great season for this pair and our other doubles teams can follow suit. Last year we were horrendous in doubles-Ivan and Otto played a great tournament by making disciplined plays and not trying to do things at a high risk. They certainly saw the benefits to this and even had opportunities in the final to win it. I am proud of them for their performance and can't wait to see them play again in the Spring. This will not be the highlight of their season, there is more to come!"