Feb. 14, 2001
Aztecs at ITA National Indoors
The San Diego State men's tennis team will make its first appearance at the ITA National Team Indoor championships in Seattle, Feb. 15-18. Only the top 16 teams in the nation are invited to this prestigious event.
The No. 43 Aztecs will play No. 3 UCLA in the first round on Thursday at 12 p.m. One match will be played each day by each team. All teams are guaranteed four matches.
Maiberger Defeats Defending National Champ
San Diego State sophomore Oliver Maiberger defeated defending national champion Alex Kim of Stanford, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, Saturday, Feb. 10. The win snapped a 17-match winning streak for Kim, who won the ITA National Indoor Championships, Feb, 1-4. Maiberger is 5-1 thus far this season in dual matches.
To make it even sweeter, Maiberger teamed with junior Travis Hasson to upset Kim and K.J. Hippensteel, 9-8, in doubles. The win improved Maiberger and Hasson's record to 10-2 on the year.
As a freshman, Maiberger was undefeated in regular season play (20-0) and was 21-1 overall.
Stanford Defeats SDSU, 5-2
SDSU lost to top-ranked Stanford, 5-2, Saturday afternoon at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium in Stanford, Calif. Unfortunately, Maiberger's two wins were not enough to win the match.
The Aztecs were able to claim one other victory at the No. 3 singles position. Senior Matt Bere defeated No. 43 Scotty Scott of Stanford, 6-3, 6-3.
Pest A Success at the National Indoors
Sophomore Valentino Pest of Munich, Germany, advanced to the quarterfinals of the Rolex National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, Feb. 1-4, the best of any Aztec has performed in this tournament.
Pest topped Texas A&M's Shuon Madden 6-3, 6-0 in the first round of men's doubles. Madden, a senior All-American, has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the country during his career.
Pest defeated 79th-ranked Stefan Hirn of Indiana State, 6-3, 6-3 in the second round to advance to the quarterfinals. He then lost to No. 11 Ramsey Smith of Duke, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Batting A Thousand
The Aztecs are three-for-three as the Mountain West Conference player of the week. Maiberger was named this week's MWC player of the week after his impressive win over Stanford's Alex Kim. He also received the honor for the week of Jan. 29 for recording solid wins over Alvaro Dominguez of New Mexico State and Tomas Hamrik of Nevada. Pest was the awarded the honor the week of Feb. 5 after defeating two nationally-ranked players at the Rolex National Intercollegiate Individual championships.
In The Rankings
The San Diego State men's tennis team is currently ranked 43rd. Pest holds a singles ranking of 58 and Maiberger is 66th. The Aztecs have competed against 10 nationally- ranked individuals since the start of the season and have upset four of those opponents.
Quoting head coach John Nelson on the ITA Indoors:
"This tournament is a great opportunity and, every match is an opportunity for us to learn."