Pham, Broncos Close Out Regular Season Strong

By Nick Ostiller

The No. 60 Santa Clara men's tennis team closed out the regular season in style last weekend, defeating conference opponents Gonzaga University and the University of Portland at the Degheri Tennis Center.

Leading the charge as he has done throughout his entire career was Tom Pham. The senior was undefeated in both his singles and doubles matches on Friday, and continued the trend against Portland on Senior Day.

"It felt good though because I had some friends there, relatives, my personal coach was around to watch me," said Pham, who this week was named to the West Coast Conference All-Academic First Team for the second straight year. "I actually played one of my better matches of the season on Senior Day, so it was a good way to end the regular season."

Pham not only boasts a 3.6 grade point average in the demanding arena of electrical engineering, but also is Santa Clara's all-time leader in singles wins. Broncos' Head Coach Derek Mills used the word "amazing" when beginning to describe his senior leader.

"He's set every record possible," said Mills, who is in his sixth season coaching at Santa Clara after making history least season by taking the team to its first ever NCAA Tournament. "It's just been fun to kind of watch him grow up."

The other two seniors on the team, Matt Kecki and Eugene Muchynski, also won their matches against the Pilots. Kecki is a redshirt senior who is in his first year with the team after transferring from the University of Southern California. Muchynksi, like Pham, started as a freshman under Mills and has played an integral role in the recent ascension of Santa Clara tennis.

"(Muchynski) and (Pham) were part of the first recruiting class that I brought in and they really made the huge swing for our program," said Mills. "They've been a big part of what we've done the last four years in taking a program from where it was to a national program."

A year removed from advancing into the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Santa Clara finished this season 4-4 in the WCC and 16-9 overall. These records earned the team a No. 4 seed in this week's conference tournament held in San Diego, Calif.. While the Broncos boasted a stellar 13-3 record at home, they were only 3-6 away from the Mission Campus. Prior to Santa Clara's first game in the tournament, Mills did not express much concern over his team's lack of success on the road.

"The guys are pretty confident and we know what we need to do," said Mills.

Pham was also confident a day before leaving for San Diego, which happens to be his hometown.

"Personally for me, we're playing at - to me - a home court," said Pham, who started playing tennis in Southern California when he was five years old. "You just kind of need to go out and do whatever you need to do." 

On Wednesday, the Broncos again took care of business against a winless Gonzaga team in the first round of the conference tournament. They will face the University of San Francisco today in a quarterfinal match.

Contact Nick Ostiller at nostiller@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.