SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's tennis team resumes its lengthy road swing with three non-conference matches this weekend, starting on Friday, Feb. 11, when it travels up the coast to face UC Santa Barbara. First serve is set for 1 p.m. PT.
The Aztecs will continue the drive north to San Luis Obispo, where they will battle Loyola Marymount and Cal Poly on consecutive days, Feb. 12-13. The SDSU-LMU clash will commence on Saturday at 10 a.m. PT, while Sunday's match against the host Mustangs is slated to get underway at 11 a.m.
A link to streaming video for the Aztecs-Gauchos showdown, as well as live scoring results for the SDSU-Cal Poly encounter, will be available on GoAztecs.com.
SDSU won two of its first three dual matches of the spring, opening with a 6-1 triumph at home over UC San Diego on Feb. 2, before edging Portland in a 4-3 thriller last Saturday in Seattle, overcoming a 3-1 deficit in singles with three straight three-set decisions to stun the Pilots.
The Aztecs subsequently fell short to Washington by a 4-0 count in their weekend finale last Sunday, losing steam in singles play after a closely contested doubles point.
Individually, senior transfer Joe Tyler posted a combined 5-0 record in doubles and singles during his first three dual matches for the Scarlet and Black, earning Mountain West Player of the Week honors on Feb. 9. With his results, Tyler and doubles partner Victor Castro raised their record to a team-best 10-2 along with a 3-0 mark this spring at the No. 1 position.
A native of Corby, England, Tyler also moved to 8-4 on the year in singles, including a 2-0 mark at the No 2 spot in dual matches, grabbing a share of the team lead with eight victories alongside freshman Alexander Mandma and sophomore Judson Blair. Mandma provided the clinching point in the Aztecs' two wins last weeks at No. 4 singles, including a dramatic victory in a three-set tiebreaker over Nikolas Tvedt of Portland, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3).
UC Santa Barbara (4-1) is coming off a 7-0 blanking of Pacific in its last outing on Feb. 7. The Gauchos have defeated two other West Coast Conference schools in San Francisco (5-2) and Loyola Marymount (4-3) while racing past UTSA (6-1). UCSB's lone loss of the year occurred in a 4-1 setback to Utah Jan. 29 in a neutral-site clash on LMU's home courts.
The Gauchos boast three players with 4-1 records this spring, including senior Viktor Krustev, sophomore Phillip Jordan and freshman Gianluca Brunkow. Jordan and Brunkow have played exclusively at the No. 1 and No. 6 slots, respectively, while Krustev has alternated between the second and third positions. In addition, sophomore Pablo Masjuan (3-1) has collected three wins in the fourth spot, while fellow classmate Kai Brady (3-1) has notched a pair of victories at No. 5.
In doubles, Brady and Jordan have joined forces for a 4-1 record in dual matches at the top of UCSB's rotation, while Masjuan and Brunkow are 3-0 in the third position.
Despite leading the all-time series 16-14 since 1989, San Diego State will be looking to snap a five-match losing streak to the Gauchos after dropping a 5-2 decision in its home finale on April 28, 2021. The Aztecs captured the doubles point, as Johannes Seeman and Victor Castro combined to defeat Alejandro Vedri and Stefano Tsorotiotis in the top spot, 6-3, with Castro later pulling away from Tsorotiotis at No. 2 singles, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1. However, the Scarlet and Black fell short in its remaining five singles matches.
After winning its season opener over UC Davis by a 5-2 tally at home on Jan. 23, LMU (1-4) has dropped four straight, including a 4-3 loss to UCSB, a home-and-away series to Utah (4-3, 6-1) and a neutral-site clash vs. Texas Tech in Salt Lake City (4-1). Prior to Saturday's clash with the Aztecs, the Lions will battle Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo at noon PT.
Dane Esses, a graduate transfer from Tulane, leads LMU with three victories this spring, winning twice in the No. 4 position while picking up another victory in the fifth slot. In addition, freshman Arthur Pantino has earned successful decisions in the fourth and sixth positions, respectively. Elsewhere, Florida State transfer Rana-Roop Bhullar (0-4) and senior Manoel De Alencar (0-4) have rotated between the top two spots on the Lions' singles ladder.
Bhullar and De Alencar (1-2) have combined on three occasions in doubles competition at both the No. 2 and No. 3 slots, while Thien Nguyen has partnered with Daniel Moreno for a pair of matches at No. 2 (0-2) and with Ermin Torlic for another at No. 3 (1-0).
Despite the relative proximity between the two schools, San Diego State has faced LMU just four times, splitting a home-and-away series last March. The Aztecs were upended by the Lions in the first meeting at home, 5-2, before exacting a measure of revenge with a 4-3 triumph four days later in Los Angeles. Former SDSU player Ignacio Martinez provided the clinching point in the No. 2 singles position after defeating Moreno, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(6), climbing out of a 5-2 hole in the third set to force the tiebreaker, where he saved two match points before finally prevailing.
Opening with a six-match homestand, Cal Poly is off to a 3-1 start, posting a 4-1 triumph over Pacific in its last match on Feb. 5. The Mustangs have also recorded victories over San Francisco (6-1) and Saint Mary's (5-2), sandwiched around a 4-2 setback to Sacramento State.
Individually, Cal Poly is led by sophomore Noah Berry, who has a compiled a 4-0 record this spring at the No. 1 singles position, while graduate transfer Hendrik Inno is 3-0 alternating between the fifth and sixth spots. In doubles play, Colter Smith has joined forces with Bastiaan Weststrate for a 4-0 mark in the No. 2 slot.
Despite suffering a 5-2 defeat to the Mustangs in the 2021 season opener at Aztec Tennis Center, SDSU still holds a 10-4 advantage in 14 head-to-head meetings since 1989. In the aforementioned match, Cal Poly jumped to a 2-0 lead after winning the doubles point and first singles encounter. The Aztecs responded with a pair of victories to tie the score at 2-2, including a narrow straight-set decision by Seeman over former Mustang Antoine Noel at No. 1, 7-5, 7-6(5). However, SDSU was stymied for the remainder of the afternoon.
Following this weekend's action, San Diego State will return home for its next confirmed scheduled match against Gonzaga on Saturday, Feb. 26, with a starting time to be determined.
Aztecs Set for Three Weekend Matches
