SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - The Saint Mary's men's tennis team got their fall season underway over the weekend as the team split up to compete at the KPSF Open in San Francisco and the Sherwood Collegiate Cup down in Southern California. 

KPSF Open…

The KPSF Open was a pro-style tournament featuring current tour members and additional high level collegiate tennis players from the likes of Stanford and Cal. Head coach Dan Cardiff sent Bastien Maxant, Juan Etchecoin, Francisco Duran and Joseph Lyon to that event where they battled through the weekend. In the opening round, true freshman Juan Etchecoin recorded his first collegiate win with a 7-6, 6-0 win over Karam Dharwan. He eventually saw his weekend come to an end in the second round to the two-seed in his draw. 

After coming on hot to end his freshman campaign a season ago, Bastien Maxant came from behind to win his opening match in three sets. Maxant fell 6-1 in the opening set but showed a ton of grit with a 6-3 then dramatic 10-4 third set win to record his first win of the season. Maxant would also fall in the second round to the top-seed to end his weekend. 

Joseph Lyon also picked up his first collegiate win as he was up 3-2 before his opponent, Saar Rogovski, retired due to injury. The Lewis and Clark College transfer fell in the second round to end his SMC debut. Lastly, second year Gael Francisco Duran had possibly the toughest matchup on the team as he went up against the number one seed and a top-300 ATP player in Elmar Ejupovic. Duran fell in straight sets but took nearly every game to deuce, executing good shots against a quality opponent.   

"It was a great first event for our guys and they got to see a high level of tennis all weekend long", said head coach Dan Cardiff. I am proud of the way they handled themselves on the court and really committed to playing the right way" (Cardiff). 

Sherwood Collegiate Cup…

Down south at the Sherwood Collegiate Cup the Gaels sent sophomore Finn Dyer and senior Thibaud Maxant to compete as doubles partners and in singles play. The Sherwood Collegiate Cup featured 13 of the top tennis programs on the west coast. Highlighting the weekend was an undefeated streak from Dyer and Maxant in doubles play, pulling off four doubles victories over the likes of USC, UC Santa Barbara, Utah State and conference foe LMU. 

Dyer also recorded a singles win over Pacific, 7-5 7-5 while Maxant fell in his lone singles match on the weekend. 

"This was an incredible event at Sherwood Country Club", said Cardiff. "13 of the best schools on the west coast and beyond were there so our boys had to bring it, and they did! Our process in practice is paying off and we will continue to improve this fall as a team" (Cardiff). 

Saint Mary's will take a week off of competition and gear up for the Aggie Invite at UC Davis starting on October 10th. Full event information and recaps can be found at smcgaels.com. 

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