Feb. 9, 2009

Los Angeles, Calif -

After a longer than expected break, LMU's Men's Tennis will take on UC Irvine, Azusa Pacific and UC Riverside this week. The Lions will first face the Anteaters this Monday at 1:30pm at Anteater Stadium and then come back home to face Azusa Pacific at 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday. The Lions will then travel to Riverside to take on the Highlanders for a 2:00 p.m. match up on Thursday.

Last Week Recap The Lions did not play last week due to poor weather conditions. LMU was scheduled to take on No. 70 UC Irvine but was postponed due to weather. The match has been rescheduled for this afternoon at 1:00p.m. Due to weather, the match has been postponed again.

About LMU Once again the Lions will be sporting a young line up this season. They will be led by veteran juniors Renzo Maggi, Dmitry Popov and Nick Von Der Ahe. "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, a 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.

The No. 63 UC Irvine men's tennis team (0-2) is also currently winless on the spring season. The anteaters fell to the No. 70 Brigham Young 4-3 and No. 14 Pepperdine 6-1. The Anteaters took two of the three doubles matches against BYU. The team of Wes Miller and Khunpol Issara defeated BYU's Cassidy Mears and Thomas Shubert 8-6 and UCI's Fabian Matthews and Steven Henderson beat Georgy Batrakov and Daniel Hwang 8-5. Henderson also won their Issara won their singles matches against BYU. Henderson defeated Batrakov 6-3, 6-4 in No. 5 singles and Issara beat Hwang 6-1, 6-2 in the No. 6 match.The Anteaters won two matches against WCC foe Pepperdine. UCI took away won doubles match and one singles match before falling to the Waves 6-1. Once again Steven Henderson led Irvine. Henderson won UCI's only singles match. Henderson defeated the Waves' Alex Moreno, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (8), in the no. 6 singles position. The pair of Stephen Stege and Sam Gould won the Anteater's lone doubles match. Stege and Gould defeated Pepperdine's Alex Llompart and Hugh Clark, 8-7 (6) in the no. 2 match.

About Azusa Pacific

The Lions will be the first mach of the year for APU. The Cougars were rained out of their season opener against UC San Diego last Saturday. Azusa Pacific posted a 20-8 overall record in 2008 being 6-2 in conference play. Cougars are led by the most successful coach in its school history, Mark Bohren. Bohren is in his 13th year with the men's program and 11th with the women's. Azusa Pacific has won their last 6 conference championships and is the favorite this year. Key returners for the Cougars include Matthijs Bolsius, Mathias Webber and Daniel Moore. Bolsius is a 2-time All American posting a 16-6 record in 2008 in the No. 1 singles positions for APU. Weber is also a 2-time All American who will most likely take the No. 2 position for the Cougars. Weber posted a 10-7 record at the No. 3 singles position last season. Moore was a consistent player at the No. 5 and 6 singles positions last season finishing with an overall record of 15-5.

About UC Riverside

The Highlanders are currently 2-2 to start this season. UCR has defeated Air Force, Riverside Community College and lost to Vanguard and San Diego State. The Highlanders were also set to take on Sacramento State but the match was canceled due to weather. UCR began the season on the road against Air Force. The Highlanders took the close match 4-3. Riverside lost the doubles round but won four of the six singles matches. Quoc Doan, John Park, Raineir Matias, and YI Chai all won their respective matches. Doan, along with Felix Macherez, won the only doubles match for the Highlanders. Vanguard was a bit too much for Riverside. The Highlanders lost the match 5-2. UCR did however sweep the doubles round. The teams of Doan and Macherez, Andres and Conroy, and Chai and Park defeated their opponents. Austin Andres was the only UCR representative to win his singles match against Vanguard. Andres defeated Lamberth 6-1, 6-2.In the same day, UCR took on Riverside Community College. The Highlanders defeated RCC 5-2 on Janurary 31. Once again UCR swept the doubles round with the teams of Doan and Macheres, Andres and Conroy, and Peterson and Park. Park, Doan, Matias and Andres all won their singles positions. The last match the Highlanders competed in was against the Aztecs of San Diego State. The Aztecs swept the Highlanders on February 6, 7-0. Chai and Park came close to winning their doubles match but lost 8-6. All singles matches were won in straight sets.

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.