SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's tennis team opens its 2020 dual-match schedule in earnest this weekend when it plays host to 15th-ranked Oklahoma State on Sunday, Jan. 12 at Aztec Tennis Center. First serve is set for 10:30 a.m. PT and admission is free.
SDSU returns six letterwinners from last year's squad that logged the program's first winning season in four years with a 15-10 record and advanced to finals of the Mountain West Championship for the first time since 2010.
Headlining the veterans is junior Jan Kirchhoff (Berlin, Germany), who finished with a team-high 23 victories in singles competition during the 2019 campaign, while senior Rafael Gonzalez Almazan (Madrid, Spain) racked up 21 wins of his own last season. In addition, senior Arnaud Restifo (Nice, France) and junior Ignacio Martinez (Weston, Fla.) reached the double-digit plateau with 14 wins apiece.
Martinez was also the Aztecs' top doubles winner with 14 victories overall last spring, including nine playing alongside the since-graduated Sander Gjoels-Andersen, as the duo earned all-Mountain West honors. Gonzalez Almazan excelled in doubles as well, notching 13 wins in dual-match play, including five with Kirchhoff.
The Scarlet and Black will also rely on the leadership of seniors Fabian Roensdorf (Dortmund, Germany) and David Hough (Traralgon, Australia) this season. Roensdorf joined the team at the semester break last year and rotated among the top three spots on the Aztecs' singles ladder throughout the spring before settling in at No. 3 for the final seven matches. Hough, meanwhile, is coming off a solid fall season in which he recorded seven wins, including two over opponents from UCLA and Stanford.
Additionally, SDSU has fortified its roster with four newcomers, including junior Aaro Pollanen (Helsinki, Finland), a transfer from Arizona who led the Aztecs with eight singles victories during the fall tournament slate, while sophomore Alex Scemanenco (Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif.), a UC Davis transfer totaled six along with freshman Daniel Traxler (Dallas, Texas).
Traxler and fellow classmate Jules Auffray (Hyeres, France) also combined to post a 5-1 doubles record last fall highlighted by a flight championship at the Arizona Wildcat Invitational in September. Martinez collected five doubles victories as well, including three with Pollanen and two with Traxler.
Head coach Gene Carswell is in his 17th season at the helm of the San Diego State men's tennis program. A four-time Mountain West Coach of the Year honoree, Carswell has amassed 211 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 34 all-MW singles honors and 16 all-conference doubles accolades.
SDSU will be competing in its earliest dual-match opener since traveling to Pepperdine on Jan. 10, 1997. The Aztecs are 7-3 in their last 10 spring lid-lifters but will be looking to snap a two-match slide after dropping a 5-2 decision at home to UC Santa Barbara last year.
Oklahoma State, meanwhile, landed at No. 15 in the Oracle ITA Preseason Top 25 National Rankings released on Jan. 8. Last spring, the Cowboys earned a final No. 22 team ranking after advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where they fell to UCLA to finish with a 16-12 record.
Individually, the tandem of juniors Dominik Kellovsky and Matej Vocel received a No. 1 ranking in the final doubles poll of the fall tournament season after posting an 8-1 record, highlighted by a victory over Ohio State's John McNally and Robert Cash in the finals of the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in Newport Beach, California. In addition, junior Luke Hammond and sophomore Emile Hudd find themselves at No. 19 in the rankings.
OSU also had three singles players complete the fall slate with a national ranking, including Vocel (41), Hudd (87) and Kellovsky (91).
The Aztecs sport a 4-2 record against the Cowboys dating back to 1996 but have dropped two straight, including a 4-0 defeat in the last meeting between the two squads in 2017 at Stillwater, Oklahoma. SDSU's last victory in the series occurred in 2013 when it claimed a 4-1 decision at Aztec Tennis Center. Since 1989, SDSU is 15-16 against current men's tennis affiliates in the Big 12 Conference.
Following Sunday's clash, San Diego State will lock horns with UC San Diego off campus at The Santaluz Club on Saturday, Jan. 18. Match time is scheduled for noon.
Parking Options 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 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.