March 14, 2011

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -

Briefly:

The men came home from a spring break series in Hawaii to record three straight wins at home. The Lions recorded three straight wins over College of Charleston, conference opponent Gonzaga and Marist University. With these wins the Lions are 7-7 overall this season and 2-4 in conference play. This week the Lions will face Lafayette College this Wednesday looking for their fifth straight win.

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 with a back-to-back win in their last two matches. With both big wins and tough losses already this season, the young team will definitely be one to watch throughout the spring.

In doubles, freshman Daniel Simko and sophomore Nicholas Bjerke are 6-6 on the season thus far and 4-1 in conference with wins over Saint Mary's, Santa Clara, San Francisco and Gonzaga. Most recently the duo recorded a win over College of Charleston and Gonzaga. Alex Wilton and Sebastian Bustamante have regained some of their winning record, with three straight wins over Hawaii Pacific, College of Charleston and Gonzaga to make them 5-5 overall. New doubles pair Aris Andreasian and Tyler Gottshall have found success together for the Lion's number three team, going 2-0 so far and recording the Lion's only doubles win over Marist. In singles, the Lion's line up has been playing pretty consistent even with such a young team. Freshman Alex Wilton started off the season with four straight wins and now has regained his winning record with three straight wins over the past week. Sebastian Bustamante also improved his singles game with three straight wins before dropping a match to Marist. Freshman Daniel Simko set his singles record to 6-6 and has continued to play for the Lions in both doubles and singles. Transfer Nicholas Bjerke's singles play has been key in some of the Lion's wins. Playing at the number two and three singles spot, Bjerke is 8-4 in singles overall and 4-1 in conference play with his only loss to USD. Bjerke recorded four straight singles wins over this past week. Freshman Tom Price has also recorded four straight wins including a conference win over Gonzaga to set his singles record to 7-5 in singles. Finally Aris Andreasian has came through with a big win for the Lions against Marist University at the number one singles spot taking Van Eck of Marist to three sets.