Santa Clara men’s tennis defeated Portland 5-2 on Mar. 29, earning their second straight West Coast Conference victory on the road and extending their winning streak to eleven matches at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center.
The win highlights Santa Clara’s strong performance this season, with a current record of 15-2 overall and a perfect 2-0 in conference play. The team is nationally ranked at number forty.
Santa Clara won five out of six singles matches, including the clinching point from Valentin Faure, who beat Tannor Binder in straight sets (6-4, 6-4) on court five. This result also marked Faure’s seventh consecutive singles victory. John Kim currently leads the team with a nine-match singles winning streak, followed by Luca Bluett with eight and Lukas Maskow tied with Faure at seven. Each player added to their individual totals during Sunday’s match.
Portland managed to secure points by taking two doubles matches as well as one singles match on court one. Santa Clara dropped its second consecutive doubles point after losses from both ranked pairs: No. 50 Bluett/Kim and No. 57 Tiago Boschmans/Luca Lemaitre lost their respective matches to Portland teams.
Looking ahead, Santa Clara will host Pacific in its next match scheduled for Thursday.
