College Tennis News - Boise State Upsets #32 Drake in Waco

We are reborn! The only remedy for a loss is to come back the next day, strap your boots on, tighten the buckle and compete again. They bounced back with perseverance, resolve and fearlessness with a 4-1 victory over #32 Drake here at the Waco in the Kick Off tournament.

I can't express enough how ecstatic our players are about their victory over a scrappy "never say die" Drake tennis team. Every time that it looked like we might pull away from their team, their players fought back with an intensity and will that resembled our team. It was absolute heart stirring to be involve with twelve collegiate singles players battling for the life of their team. The results of this match had immense national ranking repercussions, so it was a feeling of exhilaration for the entire team when #1 singles player Andy Bettles clinched the the decisive team point in a 6-5, 6-3 victory.

We are back in the "mix" (the national blender with the national prowess of the top national teams with this victory).

The recap is pretty simple. We started the doubles with an intensity that could fuel a nuclear power station. All three teams swept through the bewildered Drake teams before they knew it. We had emphasized starting out the one set doubles with a 'mind set" of competing from the "get go". It worked. We jumped out to leads in all three doubles.

First off was our #3 team of Mitchell/Sereke with a 6-2 victory. Our #2 team of Bettles/Tenreiro won 6-3, at the same time that the #1 team of McClain/Patton were serving a match point at 5-3. The #1 team couldn't get off the serve fast enough as the team of Bettles/Tenreiro clinched the doubles point.

We went into the singles with a confident sense of urgency that we were not going to let our one point lead go for "naught".

The Big Easy Sereke (#2 singles) was the first off with a commanding 6-4, 6-2 win. Freshman Brendan McClain (#5 singles) found his "mojo" in a determined 6-1, 6-4 victory.

All we needed was one more singles victory to pull off the top national win to restart our season. Thomas Tenreiro (#3) and Garrett Patton (#4) both were in slug fests that were nailbiters in the 3rd sets.

Andy Bettles at #1 had come back from being 3-5 in the first set to fight back to win a heart thumping 10-8 tie breaker for the first set. In the second set, he fought off a fierce comeback from the Drake #1 to "clinch" the deal with a 6-5 (10-8), 6-3 win.

We are presently ranked 47th in the nation and possess a 2-2 record.

Starting tomorrow we are going to prepare for our road trip to Albuquerque and Tucson. We play conference rival New Mexico (whom we have played in the Mountain West Championships the past two years) on Friday, January 31 and then we play Arizona in Tucson on Sunday, Feb. 2 at 11am. I will get the live streaming information to everyone before the matches.

Results

#1 doubles Brendan McClain/Garrett Patton (BSU) leading Goodman/Patel (Drake) 5-3

#2 doubles Andy Bettles/Thomas Tenreiro (BSU) defeated Salibasic/Lott (Drake) 6-3

#3 doubles Toby Mitchell/Nathan Sereke (BSU) defeated Frost/Mullis (Drake) 6-2

Singles

#1 Andy Bettles (BSU) #54 defeated Alen Salibasic (Drake) 6-5 (10-8), 6-3

#2 Nathan Sereke (BSU) defeated Ben Lott (Drake) 6-4, 6-2

#3 Thomas Tenreiro (BSU) vs. Robin Goodman (Drake) 4-6, 6-2, unfinished

#4 Garrett Patton (BSU) vs. Matt Frost (#123) (Drake) 3-6, 6-2, unfinished

#5 Brendan McClain (BSU) defeated Ravi Patel (Drake) 6-1, 6-4

#6 Toby Mitchell (BSU) lost to Ben Mullis (Drake) 6-4, 6-0

We fly home tomorrow, catch a breath, and then go back on the road for our New Mexico and Arizona matches.

Racquet Smoke.....Have Racquet, Will Travel

Greg Patton

Boise State Mens Tennis Coach

1910 University Dr

Boise, ID 83725

cell 208 484-2432

Mountain West Champions 2012, 2013

WAC TENNIS CHAMPIONS

2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009

gpatton@boisestate.edu