March 8, 2007
SAN DIEGO -
Aztecs Look to Start Winning Streak with Two Matches in Three Days
The San Diego State men's tennis team (3-5) looks to feed off a recent win with two matches in three days starting this weekend. On Saturday, March 10, the Aztecs will head north for a 1 p.m. match against UC Santa Barbara. On Monday, March 12, at 1:30 p.m., theAztecs will host No. 75 Arizona at the Aztec Tennis Center.
The matches come after the Aztecs snapped a five-game losing streak with a win over UC Irvine on March 1. Additionally, San Diego State freshman Achim Ceban is fresh off recent success in the 118th Pacific Coast Doubles Championship in La Jolla, where he teamed with former Aztec Benedikt Stronk to win the tournament title.
San Diego State-UC Santa Barbara: The Series
San Diego State and UC Santa Barbara are familiar foes. Since the 1996 season, the two schools have met eight times, with the series standing at a 4-4 tie. The Aztecs have won the last two meetings and four out of the last five since 2001, while the Gauchos took the first three matches from 1996-98.
Scouting UC Santa Barbara
The Gauchos come into the match unranked, with a 2-8 overall record and 0-1 mark in Big West Conference play. UC Santa Barbara has lost two straight, with the most recent loss coming in its Big West Conference opener against Cal Poly on Feb. 24. The two schools share two common opponents this season, Boise State and Oregon. Both the Aztecs and the Gauchos went 0-2 against the common opponents. UC Santa Barbara features the 83rd-ranked singles player in Philip Therp, who has been sidelined with an injury since the Gauchos' Feb. 11 road match against Oregon.
San Diego State-Arizona: The Series
It's been a while since the Aztecs and Wildcats have met on the court, and it hasn't happened too often either. The two schools have met twice since 1996, with the most recent meeting in 2003. In that meeting, Arizona edged the Red and Black for a 4-3 road win in the season-opener. The only other match came in 1998, when the Aztecs recorded a 7-0 shutout en route to a 15-8 season and NCAA tournament appearance. The schools were set to meet last year in Tucson, Ariz., but the game was cancelled.
Scouting Arizona
With a 3-6 record, the Wildcats hold a No. 75 ranking and recently edged the Aztecs' fellow Mountain West Conference member UNLV, 4-3, on Saturday, March 3. The Wildcats also tasted MWC competition earlier in the year, falling to then-No. 73 New Mexico, 6-1, on Feb. 4. Arizona notched perhaps its most impressive win on Feb. 11 in a 4-3 victory over the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then ranked No. 43. The Wildcats are a relatively young team with only one senior on the roster, but junior Claudio Christen has been a fixture at the No. 1 spot and was ranked up until late February.
Dickhardt Tough at No. 2
If there has been one bright spot for San Diego State it has been the play of senior Markus Dickhardt. To open the year, Dickhardt experienced no trouble in registering straight-set victories over his UC Riverside and Concordia (Calif.) opponents en route to earning Mountain West Conference Player of the Week honors. After splitting time at Nos. 1 and 2 while Christian Groh was out, Dickhardt returned to his old form and dispatched Richard Johnson of 10th-ranked Pepperdine, 7-5, 5-6, 10-6. For his efforts, he was named the 68th ranked singles player nationally and he lived up to the hype. Against Oregon, he defeated Mike Myrhed in straight sets at No. 2 and followed it with a three-set victory over 83rd-ranked Alex Slovic of Washington at No. 1. In a disappointing weekend, he returned from the Pacific Northwest as the only Aztec to win both of his singles matches. Just last week against UC Irvine, Dickhardt won his match as the No. 1 singles player in three sets and enters this weekend's competition as the No. 67 singles player in the FILA Division I men's tennis rankings.
Injury Bug Bites Aztecs
No one likes to make excuses, but the injury bug has taken a bite out of the Aztecs. Injuries have hampered Christian Groh all season long and now Achim Ceban has fallen victim. Groh, one-half of the No. 8 ranked doubles tandem, has battled tendinitis in both of his knees which has caused him to miss significant action and forced head coach Gene Carswell to shuffle the lineup. Ceban was the latest Aztec to go down as he suffered an ankle injury during the Pepperdine match on Feb. 10, which led to his retirement at No. 5. Both players made somewhat of a comeback as Groh competed in two doubles matches and only one singles tilt, while Ceban was only able to go in singles with SDSU's match with Washington on Feb. 25.