April 19, 2014
NEWPORT EEACH, Calif. - The San Diego State men's tennis team dominated play on Saturday evening, defeating UC Irvine, 5-2, at Palisades Tennis Club. With the victory, the Aztecs enter next weekend's Mountain West Championships riding a two-match winning streak.
"We won a good match up here against a solid UC Irvine team," head coach Gene Carswell said. "I'm proud of the guys, they're competing at a high level. We're starting to play our best tennis of the season, and I like the direction of our team going into the conference tournament."
SDSU (11-11, 3-1 MW) began the match by winning the doubles point, as the Aztecs' No. 1 duo of sophomore Freddy Gelbrich (Isernhagen, Germany) and freshman Hendrik Jebens (Stuttgart, Germany) cruised past Jonathan Hammel and Tyler Pham, 8-2, before the No. 2 team of junior Thorsten Bertsch (Mannheim, Germany) and Andranik Khachatryan (Burbank, Calif.) topped Ryan Cheung and Jonathan Poon, 8-6, to clinch the point.
San Diego State's No. 3 unit of senior Juan Florez (Bogota, Colombia) and freshman Jonas Meinzer (Buggingen, Germany) was locked in a tight match with Caryl Hernandez and Shuhei Shibahara, 5-6, when the Aztecs sealed the point.
Singles play began Khachatryan defeating Hernandez on the No. 5 court, 6-1, 6-1, while Bertsch put SDSU ahead 3-0 with his straight-set victory over Cheung, 6-1, 6-1, in the No. 1 slot.
Freshman Milen Ianakiev (Elz, Germany) sealed the dual-match victory with his decision over Shibahara, 6-2, 6-3. Once the match was decided, freshman Maxi Boewer-Stelter dropped his match to Rafael Davidian on the No 4 court, 6-2, 6-3, Jebens earned a three-set win over Hammel in the No. 3 spot, 6-3, 3-6, 10-4, and Gelbrich fell short against Pham in three sets, 3-6, 7-5, 10-8, in No. 2 singles.
The MW Championships begin on Thursday, April 24 in Fresno, Calif.