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Faulkner: VU men’s tennis aims for big finish

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The Vanguard University men’s tennis team is bidding to claim the program’s first NAIA crown. But if Coach Mattias Johansson’s Lions do manage to cap what is now an unbeaten season by winning the national title in Mobile, Ala. in May, the championship banner would only provide a tangible representation of the curtain closing.

The school announced March 4 that it would discontinue the men’s and women’s tennis programs at the end of this season. The news was as shocking as it was disappointing for Johansson and his players. But as competitors often do, Lions’ players have chosen to convert an imposing challenge into an opportunity to display what the athletic department slogan calls Gold Pride.

The men’s team is 21-0, 10-0 in the Golden State Athletic Conference and ranked No. 4 in the NAIA with just two regular-season conference matches remaining. The Lions have won 31 straight GSAC contests and have clinched their third straight regular-season conference title.

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The toll of devastation being dealt with, however, goes well beyond the pink slips in their lockers.

Roughly a week after the Lions were fed to the bean counters, junior standout Thomas Gely broke his neck diving into a pool. Though he believed only to have sustained a possible concussion at the time of the accident, Gely soon learned that his C5 vertebra was badly fractured. He quickly and carefully returned to his native France, where he remains in a hospital, immobilized in a halo and awaiting word as to the severity of the potential damage to his spinal chord.

Subsequently, No. 1 singles player Stefan Kilchhofer has dealt with back and shoulder ailments that could sideline him at any point.

And junior Michael Rjazanov, who stepped in for Gely at No. 4 singles, has battled a foot injury that makes the continuous grind of postseason tournament play a dubious proposition.

And then there is the emotional toll of being severed from their scholarships, and their university, without so much as a drop shot worth of severance.

“When the season started, we were very excited because we thought we had a great team,” said senior No. 3 singles player Roger Muri, who along with Kilchhofer and No. 2 singles player and senior Fabio Silva have a combined 59-0 singles record this season. “We were looking forward to what we thought would be the most successful season that the Vanguard tennis team had ever had. But then the cards turned. The Vanguard board decided that we apparently don’t fit the mission, and that financial issues made it impossible to keep the tennis team. They have not only made it difficult for players to perform as well as before, but they have also caused huge personal issues for them over where they are going to be after this year and having to find [another collegiate home] on such short notice.”

Muri, who like Johansson is a native of Switzerland, plans to graduate in the spring, as does Swiss import Kilchhofer, a junior in terms of eligibility who will obtain his degree in May after only five semesters.

Silva, a native of Brazil and a first-year Lion who helped Fresno Pacific University win an NAIA title in 2009, will also graduate next month.

But the German-born Rjazanov, Bakersfield native Daymon Johnson (No. 5 singles), Gely and yet another member of the Lions Swiss army, Filip Burnac (No. 6 singles), have one year of eligibility remaining.

“I’m really sad because it’s my junior year,” said Burnac, in his second season at Vanguard after transferring from Scottsdale Community College in Arizona, which discontinued its program when he was there. “I really like [Vanguard] the environment, the whole package. At least [at Scottsdale] we knew the reasons why they canceled the program. Here, I’m still confused. I feel kind of lost.”

Johansson, a former No. 1 singles standout at Vanguard who is in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame and who is in his 20th season coaching the school’s men’s and women’s teams, said he is reluctant to speak frankly about the program’s termination at this time. Instead, he chooses to focus on finishing out the season as successfully as possible.

“It’s a great feeling to be finishing up the way we are, because at the time [of the announcement, 11 matches into the season] it could have gone one of two ways,” said Johansson, who is 304-143 with six GSAC titles with the men and 229-147 with three GSAC women’s crowns.

Johansson credits Muri for delivering an overhead volley to any initial negativity.

“The day they gave us their decision [to discontinue to the program], the players could have said: ‘Why should we even fight for it? Why even care?’” Johansson said. “But not 10 seconds after hearing the news, Muri said ‘Guys, let’s do this.’ After that, there was no question of doing anything else. In that moment, we were all committed to moving on.”

The Vanguard men, who play and practice at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center, play host to Biola on Friday and close the conference regular season Saturday at home against Arizona Christian.

The GSAC Tournament is April 15-17 at Indian Wells Tennis Garden. After a nonconference clash with Claremont Mudd, the No. 1-ranked team in NCAA Division III, the Lions will venture to the NAIA Tournament, May 12-16 in Alabama.

•The Vanguard women’s team is 5-14, 5-5 in conference, good for fourth place among seven teams, and ranked No. 17 in the NAIA.

The Lions, who lost two committed recruits in December and whose six-player roster includes only one senior, Gabrielle Alford, are on the bubble for a bid in the 24-team NAIA Tournament, Johansson said.

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