Feb. 4, 2007
SAN DIEGO - The 50th-ranked San Diego State men's tennis team dropped a narrow 4-3 decision to No. 17 Boise State Sunday afternoon at Aztec Tennis Center. With the loss, SDSU falls to 2-2, while the Broncos up their record to 6-0.
Boise State, coming off a 4-3 victory over San Diego on Saturday, jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after sweeping all three doubles matches. The Aztecs used a different doubles lineup for a third consecutive match due to the health of Christian Groh, who makes up one-half of the ninth-ranked tandem with Markus Dickhardt.
In singles play, the 28th-ranked Groh found himself in his familiar position at the top of the lineup, but was downed by No. 15 Luke Shields, 6-3, 6-4, giving the Broncos a 2-0 advantage.
Later, Dickhardt fell victim to BSU's other ranked player in 94th-ranked Clancy Shields at No. 2. The senior from Germany lost the first set 6-4 and was down 5-0 in the second before making a comeback. After winning three consecutive games to pull within two, Clancy Shields held serve, put the match away, 6-4, 6-3, and gave the visitors a 3-0 cushion.
Not one minute later on court No. 3, Anthony Gomez got the Aztecs on the board with his straight-set victory over Piotr Dilaj, 6-3, 6-4, pulling SDSU to within two team points with three matches still in progress.
Unfortunately for San Diego State, the Broncos' Brent Werbeck fought off Robert Sabo at No. 6, 6-2, 7-6(5), to clinch the victory for BSU. The Aztecs received three-set wins from Achim Ceban and Juan Gomez at Nos. 4-5 to provide the final score.
SDSU returns to action Feb. 10 when it travels to Malibu, Calif., for a 1 p.m. PST contest against defending national champions and ninth-ranked Pepperdine at Ralphs-Strauss Tennis Center.
#17 Boise State 4, #50 San Diego State 3
Doubles
1. Robertson/C. Shields (BSU) def. Dickhardt/Ceban (SDSU), 8-3
2. Dilaj/L. Shields (BSU) def. A. Gomez/Sabo (SDSU), 8-3
3. Boswell/Roberson (BSU) def. Timu/J. Gomez (SDSU), 8-6
Singles
1. #15 Luke Shields (BSU) def. #28 Christian Groh (SDSU), 6-3, 6-4
2. #94 Clancy Shields (BSU) def. Markus Dickhardt (SDSU), 6-4, 6-3
3. Anthony Gomez (SDSU) def. Piotr Dilaj (BSU), 6-3, 6-4
4. Achim Ceban (SDSU) def. Eric Roberson (BSU), 2-6, 6-3, 6-1
5. Juan Gomez (SDSU) def. Blake Boswell (BSU), 2-6, 7-6, 6-3
6. Brent Werbeck (BSU) def. Robert Sabo (SDSU), 6-2, 7-6(5)