Tennis competes in Boise

The Gonzaga men's tennis team continued their impressive fall season with a strong performance in the Boise State University Fall Classic this past weekend in Boise, Idaho. 

One of the many highlights for the Bulldogs was the doubles pair of junior Levin Guillermo and sophomore Pablo Mosquera Pérez reaching the final round of the main draw.  After receiving a bye in the first round, Guillermo and Mosquera Pérez beat Andrew Warren and Cody Kohlmoos of the University of Montana 8-6 to advance to the semifinals. Guillermo and Mosquera Pérez then beat the bracket's top seed, Montana State University's Prithiv Sivasubramaniam and Markus Schleuter, by a convincing score of 8-2. This win earning them a spot in the final round, where they lost 8-5 to Chad Henninger and Julian Sanchez of Eastern Washington University.

But it hasn't always come easily for Guillermo and Mosquera Pérez.       

"We had a tough experience last year when we played for the first time together at the UW tournament," Mosquera Pérez said.  "I think we learned a lot from that, so this time we were able to mix our strengths together.  Levin's goal was to hit hard from the baseline and hit good returns, and I had to cover the net and win the points there, put pressure on the opponents. Basically, we learned from our mistakes last year, the first time we played together, and this weekend we were aware of what we had to do."

"And I have to give credit to Coach Pete," Mosquera Pérez said, referring to head coach Peter MacDonald.  "He told us that Levin should play in the back and side and that I should play in the forehand side.  And that was a smart decision."

In addition to the doubles success of Guillermo and Mosquera Pérez, the Bulldogs also had a tremendous success in singles.  Junior Olivier Jamin and Guillermo both advanced to the quarterfinals, while senior Scott Sullivan and freshman Alvaro Nazal reached the semifinals.  In fact, Nazal beat Guillermo, his teammate, in order to advance to the semifinal round.  The Bulldogs are now a very impressive 43-19 this fall in singles.

"I think the team's doing great," MacDonald said.  "[These are the] best results since I've been here.  It's helping our confidence a lot.  We are starting to realize that if we work hard, we can accomplish some big things this season, some things we've never done before."

MacDonald attributes much of this fall's success to both the high level of competition between one another during practices and to the team's talented newcomers.

"We had a strong recruiting class this year," MacDonald said.  "The new guys have performed really well.  Everyone is pushing each other right now, and it's making everyone better."

Sullivan, one of the team's two captains said the new players really impacted the team.

"We're stepping onto the court with a winning mindset this year," he said.  "We have four new great players who are pushing the rest of us every day in the weight room, at conditioning, and on the court.  Coaches Pete, Mickael and Marco are also putting in the extra time to help improve our games in the areas we need most."

With so much talent and with all of their success this fall, Sullivan is certainly not shy about his expectations for the team's upcoming season.

"I think we are all looking forward to the spring season. This is easily the most talented team I've been a part of, and we know that we have the potential to finish at the top of the WCC. I'd definitely like to see us receive a national ranking by the end of the year," Sullivan said.