Feb. 16, 2014
LAS VEGAS, Nev. - The No. 53 San Diego State men's tennis team continued its winning ways this weekend, earning a Mountain West road victory over UNLV, 4-3, on Sunday afternoon at Fertitta Tennis Complex in Las Vegas, Nev.
With the win, the Aztecs (5-2, 3-0 MW) have won 12-consecutive MW regular season matches going back to the 2012 dual season. SDSU has won two-straight dual matches overall after defeating No. 66 BYU, 6-1, on Saturday.
San Diego State began the match by sweeping doubles play to take an early 1-0 advantage. The Aztecs' No. 2 unit of sophomore Freddy Gelbrich (Isernhagen, Germany) and freshman Hendrik Jebens (Stuttgart, Germany) topped the Rebels' team of Tamas Batyi and Dimitar Petrov, 6-2, before SDSU's No. 1 duo of senior Hunter Nicholas (Park City, Utah) and junior Thorsten Bertsch (Mannheim, Germany) knocked off Ace Matias and Denys Pume, 6-0, to seal the doubles point.
In addition, the Aztecs' No. 3 team of Jonas Meinzer (Buggingen, Germany) and Milen Ianakiev (Elz, Germany) added a victory over Willie Sublette and Ozzy Abraham, 6-4, to conclude doubles action.
In singles play, senior Juan Florez (Bogota, Colombia) pushed SDSU's advantage to 2-0 with his win over Abraham, 6-2, 6-2, in the No. 6 slot, before Nicholas dropped his match to Batyi in No. 2 singles, 6-5 (6), 6-4, to make it 2-1. Jebens responded by earning a narrow decision over Sublette in the No. 4 spot, 6-5 (4), 6-5 (6), to give the Aztecs a 3-1 lead, and Ianakiev sealed the dual-match victory with his win over Petrov, 6-5 (9-7), 6-4, in No. 5 singles.
After the dual match was decided, No. 124-ranked Gelbrich fell to Pume in three sets, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, before Bertsch dropped his match to Matias, 6-3, 6-4, in No. 1 singles action.
The Aztecs return to the court on Thursday, Feb. 20, as they continue their stretch of six-straight dual matches away from home against Santa Clara, beginning at 3 p.m. PT.