May 27, 2010
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State men's tennis head coach Gene Carswell announced the signing of J. Hunter Nicholas to a National Letter of Intent on Thursday. Nicholas is a senior from San Joaquin High School in Irvine, Calif.
"We are very excited to add Hunter to our Aztec men's tennis family," Carswell said. "Hunter is a great athlete with a ton of upside to evolve into a very good college player. We can't wait to get him here for the fall season."
Nicholas has enjoyed singles and doubles success in the junior ranks. He was the 54th ranked player in the nation for 18-under singles, and was also part of the 36th-ranked 18-under doubles team. Tennisrecruiting.net lists him as the 80th-ranked recruit in his class.
As a singles player, Nicholas earned a third-place finish at the 2010 Copper Bowl in Arizona, and placed in the semifinals of Agassi's NO QUIT 2009 Championships where he took down the 62nd-ranked player in the nation.
In doubles play, Nicholas made up one half of a team that won the Carmel Valley Championship in 2009 and made it to the semifinals in the Hawaii National Open. He also advanced to the quarterfinals at the 2009 U.S. Clay Court Nationals.
Before coming to California, Nicholas played at Park City High School in Utah, where he won the high school 3A number two doubles state championship as a freshman in 2005-06, and the state singles championship at number one as a sophomore in 2006-07.
The San Diego State men's tennis team finished the 2009-10 campaign with a 13-13 record and advanced to the championship match of the Mountain West Conference tournament. The Aztecs finished the year strong, winning four of their final five and nine of their last 11 matches.