Monday, 04/02/2012

MORAGA, Calif. - The Saint Mary's men's tennis team has quite a busy schedule this week, hosting three matches at the Timothy Korth Tennis Complex. The Gaels will welcome non-conference opponents Montana and No. 59 Oregon to Moraga before hosting perennial West Coast Conference powerhouse and No. 7-ranked Pepperdine.

SMC will open up the week on Tuesday, April 3 against the Grizzlies at 3 p.m. and then take on Ducks on Thursday, April 5 at 1:30 p.m. The biggest match of the week will come on Saturday, April 7 when the Gaels host the Waves at 12 p.m.

Saint Mary's enters the week with a 4-12 record and a 0-4 mark in WCC play. The Gaels have been on the losing end of five-straight matches, including falling to BYU at home last weekend, 5-2.

Senior Maxime Olivan leads the team this season and has come on strong as of late. Olivan earned the biggest win of his career last week against the Cougars, defeating No. 45 Georgy Batrakov 7-6, 2-6, 6-2 on court one. Olivan is 8-8 this season at the No. 1 spot but has won seven of his last 10 matches.

Seif El Sherbini also has an 8-8 record this season playing mostly at the No. 5 spot, while Sherif Hamdy is 7-9 this season.

Montana enters Tuesday's match with a 7-9 overall record. Most recently, the Grizzlies defeated Idaho State and Portland State. The Gaels defeated Montana 6-1 last season in Moraga and are 3-3 against the Grizzlies all-time.

No. 59 Oregon enters the week with a 14-3 record, with their only three losses of the season coming to No. 27 Washington, No. 5 UCLA and No. 1 USC. Robin Cambier leads the Ducks with a 15-2 record this spring, while Alex Rovello has a 12-5 singles record, including a 10-5 mark at the No. 1 spot. Cambier has also teamed up with Jeff Mullen on court one in doubles to post a 15-1 record this spring.

No. 7 Pepperdine enters the week with a 14-6 overall record and a 3-0 mark in WCC play. Most recently, the Waves defeated No. 8 Stanford, Santa Clara and San Francisco at home. Several Pepperdine players are currently ranked in the ITA singles poll including No. 9 Sebastian Fanselow, No. 16 Finn Tearney, and No. 72 Mousheg Hovhannisyan, while Tearney and Llompart are the No. 2-ranked doubles team in the country.

The Gaels will return to action next week with three more WCC matches. Saint Mary's will play San Francisco at the Olympic Club on Monday, April 9 before hosting San Diego on Thursday, April 12. SMC will conclude the week on Saturday, April 14 at Santa Clara.