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Men’s tennis team captures WAC title: CHAMPIONS!
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A few weeks ago Greg Patton said he thought this year’s
Bronco tennis squad had a good shot of winning the Western Athletic
Conference Tennis Championship.
Not only was he right about earning the school’s
first-ever WAC title in tennis, the way to the championship went
through the two top teams in the conference.
“I feel one of the greatest highs,” said Patton
after the win. “I was given a gift with these incredible
young men.”
After taking over as head coach in early March, Patton has led
Boise State back to where it once was – the top of its
conference. As a member of the Big Sky and Big West
Conference’s, Patton was responsible for winning five
championships as well, before leaving the program to coach the U.S.
National team in 1998.
The Broncos’ run for the championship started on Friday
afternoon with a 4-3 win against the 49th-ranked Tulsa Golden
Hurricane.
Not knowing whether or not their next match would be played
indoors or outdoors, the Broncos turned around on Saturday to
defeat the tournament’s number one seed Rice, on a damp
overcast afternoon at the Appleton Tennis Center. The Owls were
ranked 28th in the nation coming into the match against the
Broncos.
While the Broncos were disrupting one side of the bracket,
Southern Methodist held true to its number two seed in advancing to
the finals on Sunday afternoon against Boise State.
Despite the home-court advantage for the Broncos, they dropped
the doubles point to the Mustangs and looked to have their work cut
out for them the rest of the way.
“We believe we could do it,” said senior Marcus
Berntson. “We really bonded this week.”
Berntson got the momentum going in the right direction for Boise
State, winning the first single match of the day in dominating
fashion against SMU’s Gwinyai Chingoka. Chingoka was ranked
61st in the nation coming into the weekend.
Berntson credited the support of the crowd as a major force in
defeating the Mustangs’
number one player.
“You can’t explain it. You want to show the audience
what you can do. You get goose bumps,” Berntson said.
The Bronco-Mustang shoot-out continued as Pater Oredsson beat
Boise State’s Mahmound Rezk at the number six position. The
Broncos responded with wins from Matias Silva and Thomas Schoeck,
taking a 3-2 advantage against SMU.
The Broncos needed only one more win to take the championship,
and it came down to Guillaume Bouvier and Niles Klemann.
Bouvier appeared to be the one to close the deal Broncos, but
was unable to break serve against Johan Brunstom.
“I felt like I could not lose the match,” Bouvier
said .
Before Bouvier could win, Klemann had smoked through the final
two sets of his match, giving the Broncos their fourth team point
and the championship.
“I knew we were up, it was a relief,” said Bouvier
about the closing moments of and the two matches.
“It’s unbelievable. We kept on working hard at
practice and we wanted to win the WAC,” he said.
Along with the WAC title, the win also secured a spot in the
NCAA Tennis Championships for the Broncos. This marks the fifth
time coach Patton has guided Boise State to nationals, where their
best finish in 1997 was fifth. First round competition begins May
9.
Phil Dailey, The Arbiter
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