SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's tennis team opens its highly anticipated 2019 dual-match schedule on Sunday, Jan. 20, when it plays host to UC Santa Barbara at Aztec Tennis Center. First serve is set for noon PT and admission is free.
SDSU is 7-3 in its last 10 spring lid-lifters after having its seven-match winning streak in such openers snapped last year in a 5-0 defeat to Loyola Marymount on The Mesa. Since 1989, the Aztecs and Gauchos have faced each another in two dual-match openers, as the Scarlet and Black emerged with a 5-4 victory at home in 1994, avenging an earlier road defeat in 1991 by the identical margin.
San Diego State is 65-24 against current members of the Big West dating back to 1989, including a 16-11 record against UCSB. However, the Aztecs have dropped two straight to the Gauchos, including a 6-1 setback at Santa Barbara in 2018. Then-junior Sander Gjoels-Andersen was the lone SDSU player to record a point in that match defeating Anders Holm, a Danish compatriot, in straight sets at No. 4 singles, 7-6(4), 6-4.
The Aztecs were paced during the fall tournament schedule by sophomore Jan Kirchhoff, who racked up a 10-5 record, highlighted by winning the consolation bracket at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships last October. The Berlin, Germany, native has won seven of his last eight, adding a pair of victories at the Fresno State Bulldog Classic to his ledger.
In addition, junior Rafael Gonzalez Almazan has totaled eight victories of his own, including three straight at the Bulldog Classic, where he fell in the Flight B championship final. Last season, the Madrid, Spain, product led the team with 18 wins overall, including 11 during the spring slate. Not to be outdone, Gonzalez Almazan joined forces with Gjoels-Andersen a year ago to capture all-Mountain West honors in doubles.
SDSU's also returns junior Arnaud Restifo, who received all-conference singles recognition in 2018. The Nice, France, native closed with a rush last fall, winning three consecutive Flight A encounters at the Bulldog Classic before dropping a straight-set decision the title match.
Elsewhere, juniors David Hough and Nicholas Mitchell will vie for spots in the Aztec rotation, along with sophomore Ignacio Martinez. Mitchell was a bracket winner during the fall at the Arizona Wildcat Invitational, while Martinez scored a couple of impressive victories at the Battle in the Bay Classic, including a thriller over TCU's Bertus Kruger, who once rose to No. 81 in the ITF World Junior Tennis rankings. Hough also witnessed success in limited action last fall, notching three wins at the Aztec Invitational.
Two new faces have been added to the SDSU roster this spring in junior Fabian Roensdorf and freshman Gavin Spencer. A native of Dortmund, Germany, Roensdorf will have two years of eligibility after attending Deutsche Sporthocschule in Cologne, Germany, while Spencer, who originally signed with the University of Arizona, hails from San Juan Capistrano and is a former four-star recruit according to TennisRecruiting.net.
Head coach Gene Carswell is in his 16th season at the helm of the San Diego State men's tennis program. A four-time Mountain West Coach of the Year recipient, Carswell has amassed 196 victories overall while guiding the Aztecs to four regular-season conference championships and a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances in 2005 and 2015. During his tenure, Carswell has coached four MW Player of the Year winners and two league Freshman of the Year selections, while his players have merited 33 all-MW singles honors and 17 all-conference doubles accolades.
Conversely, UCSB finished with an 18-7 overall record and a 5-0 mark in the Big West Conference a year ago, capturing that league's regular-season and tournament titles, before falling to USC in the first round of the NCAA Championships.
Individually, the Gauchos are led by senior Nicolas Moreno de Alboran and junior Joseph Guillin, who find themselves among the top 25 singles players in the latest ITA rankings released in November.
The reigning Big West Player of the Year and a three-time first team all-conference honoree, Moreno de Alboran climbed to sixth in the rankings after posting a 13-5 record during the fall tournament schedule, highlighted by an appearance in the finals of the Oracle ITA Masters to go with a berth in the semifinals at the ITA National Fall Championships.
Guillin, meanwhile, earned a No. 22 ranking after compiling a 9-4 record in the fall, featuring victories over No. 8 Daniel Cukierman of USC and No. 20 Axel Geller of Stanford among others.
New Parking Options in Effect at SDSU
There are three ways to pay for parking at San Diego State – in advance, day-of by the PayByPhone app and day-of at pay stations around campus. For those interested in paying in advance, visitors can purchase a permit online through Parking & Transportation Services' Aztec Parking Portal (https://aztecs.t2hosted.com/Account/Portal). The cost is $7 for a daily permit. The permit would need to be printed and displayed on the dash.
The first of two day-of options is using the PayByPhone app, which gives visitors the option of purchasing parking in all student and visitor lots. The app requires payment and vehicle information, and once that is complete, customers can choose a location on campus to park and pay through the app. The location number for Parking Structure 7 is 28507. The app also has the ability to send a text message when the permit is set to expire and allows for an extension of time. Through the app, it is $3 per hour plus a $0.35 per-transaction fee for 1-4 hours and $15 plus the $0.35 per-transaction fee for a 5-10-hour block.
The second day-of method is at pay stations located at CSL (Parking Info Booth), P3 Level 1, P7 Level 2 (structure closest to athletics facilities) and P12 Level 8. Permits purchased at any of these locations are valid in any student or visitor lot and require license plate information before the transaction is complete. The permit does not need to be printed since the license plate information will be entered in the system. Visitors who use credit card for payment instead of cash can opt in and have the system send a reminder text when the permit is set to expire with the ability to extend the time. There are no transaction fees at the pay station other than a $0.25 addition for those who extend their time.