SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's tennis team opens its highly anticipated 2021 spring schedule with a pair of nonconference dual matches this week.
The Aztecs will play host to Cal Poly on Thursday, Feb. 4 at 1 p.m. before driving up the freeway on Sunday, Feb. 7 for a showdown at high noon with No. 1 USC.
At this time, no fans will be permitted to attend SDSU home matches at Aztec Tennis Center due to COVID-19 protocols.
San Diego State has not competed since March 7, 2020, when select players took part in the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships at La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. The Aztecs' last dual match was completed two days earlier on March 5, with the Scarlet and Black shutting out San Diego Christian at home by a 7-0 count.
SDSU finished with a 5-5 record during the 2020 campaign that was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Aztecs garnered three all-Mountain West accolades following the abbreviated season, including the doubles tandem of Rafael Gonzalez Almazan and Ignacio Martinez, while Fabian Roensdorf received the honor in singles.
Although Roensdorf elected not to return, Gonzalez Almazan and Martinez are back in the mix ready to make another splash in both doubles and singles. The SDSU duo went 7-1 last season, notching a 3-0 record at the No. 1 position in dual matches. Additionally, the pairing advanced to the quarterfinal round of Pacific Coast Doubles Championship before finishing the tournament with a 4-1 mark.
Head coach Gene Carswell, who is entering his 18th season at the helm of the Aztecs, expects Fresno State transfer Johannes Seeman to make a sizable contribution in doubles as well this spring. A native of Estonia, Seeman received all-MW recognition in his lone season with the Bulldogs in 2019-20 after logging a 9-3 record with partner Cagatay Soke.
Additionally, Seeman has enjoyed recent success on the international stage, capturing his first pro-level event after winning the doubles title at the ITF M15 Pärnu PAF Open last November in his hometown of Pärnu, Estonia.
Carswell has also been impressed with a pair of freshmen in Judson Blair and Roni Rikkonen. A prep star at Sprague High School in Salem, Oregon, Blair was the OSAA Class 6A state singles runner-up as a junior in 2019 and was listed a five-star prospect by TennisRecruiting.net. Last fall, he posted a pair of victories in consolation play at the highly competitive Oracle ITA Masters, held at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.
Rikkonen, meanwhile, has won 14 junior national championship gold medals across all age groups (12-21) in his native Finland and has held a No. 9 national ranking in that country for the past three years. In 2018, Rikkonen enjoyed a successful stint on the ITF junior tour, winning doubles titles at the Stavanger (Norway) ITF, the Prince Cup in Liepaja, Latvia, and the Tartu (Estonia) ITF Junior to go with finals appearances in two other events.
Rounding out the list of newcomers is Victor Castro, a native Brazilian who posted a 27-1 doubles record and a 20-4 singles mark as a freshman at Cerritos College in 2017-18, helping the Falcons claim the California Community College Athletic Association dual-match state championship.
Carswell feels that each one of his players can step in and excel at any spot on the Aztecs' singles ladder this spring, including former Arizona transfer Aaro Pollanen, who is SDSU's top returning winner after combining for nine victories across the fall and spring schedules in his first year on The Mesa in 2019-20. In addition, the Finnish native has turned heads with his play in doubles during preseason camp.
San Diego State is 6-4 in its last 10 spring openers but will be looking to snap a three-match slide after falling to then-No. 15 Oklahoma State by a 7-0 tally at home.
The Aztecs sport a 10-3 record against Cal Poly dating back to 1989, including a 5-2 setback on the road in the last meeting between the two teams in 2018. Gonzalez Almazan is SDSU's lone holdover from that match when he posted a 6-4, 6-4 decision at No. 6 singles over Roman Shenkiryk, a San Diego native who is now a redshirt junior on the Mustang squad.
The Aztecs are 69-26 against the Big West Conference since 1989, winning two of three matches last year. SDSU defeated UC Irvine on the road (5-2); blanked UC Davis at home (4-0); before suffering a 4-3 heartbreaker at UC Santa Barbara. The Aztecs and Cal Poly were scheduled to face another in San Diego last year, but the pandemic cut the season short.
Thursday's match will also mark the season opener for the Mustangs, who are led by redshirt senior Antoine Noel. Noel is a three-time all-Big West honoree (twice singles, once doubles) and has led Cal Poly in singles victories in two of the last three years.
Top-ranked USC (3-0), meanwhile, has opened the year with three straight victories at home, downing UNLV (4-0) and UCLA (4-1) in the ITA Kickoff Weekend, Jan. 24-25, before shutting out Loyola Marymount (7-0) on Jan. 29. The Trojans have three players represented among the top 30 in the latest ITA singles rankings released Jan. 13, including Daniel Cukierman (No. 1), Riley Smith (No. 19) and Mor Bulis (No. 26).
Cukierman, who reached the NCAA singles round of 32 in 2019, has also teamed with Smith to earn a No. 1 ITA ranking in doubles.
The Aztecs have come up empty in 12 encounters with USC dating back to 1989, including a 4-0 setback in the last meeting between the two programs during the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
Following this week's matches, San Diego State returns to action with back-to-back encounters at home vs. Loyola Marymount (Feb. 13) and UC San Diego (Feb. 14).
Aztecs To Open Spring Slate This Week
