Feb. 1, 2015
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Despite a fifth-straight victory by the doubles team of junior Freddy Gelbrich and sophomore Hendrik Jebens, the San Diego State men's tennis team dropped its road match to UC Santa Barbara, 5-2, Sunday afternoon at Rob Gym Courts.
The Aztecs No. 1 duo of Gelbrich (Isernhagen, Germany) and Jebens (Stuttgart, Germany) improved to 5-0 this dual season by defeating UCSB's team of Tobias Galskov and Erik Johnsson, 6-2.
However, SDSU's No. 2 unit of sophomores Marko Goles-Babic (Zagreb, Croatia) and Jonas Meinzer (Buggingen, Germany) dropped its match to Nathan Eshmade and Chase Masciorini, 6-1, and the No. 3 team of seniors Thorsten Bertsch (Mannheim, Germany) and Andranik Khachatryan (Burbank, Calif.) came up short against Morgan Mays and Andrew Riminton, 6-4, clinching the doubles point for the Gauchos.
In singles action, Goles-Babic fell short on the No. 3 court against Cody Rakela, 6-3, 6-3, while Jebens earned a victory in No. 4 singles over Riminton, 7-6 (7), 6-1. Bertsch, playing in the No. 1 slot, dropped a hard-fought match to Morgan Mays, 6-4, 6-4, while sophomore Milen Ianakiev (Elz, Germany) had narrow No. 5 singles loss to Eshmade, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, as UCSB (2-2) clinched the dual-match victory.
Gelbrich improved to 3-1 this dual season with his come-back, three-set No. 2 singles victory over Galskov, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, and Meinzer dropped his No. 6 singles match to Teague Hamilton, 6-0, 7-6 (5).
San Diego State (3-2, 0-1 MW) resumes dual play on Saturday, Jan. 6, when the Aztecs play at No. 4 UCLA beginning at 1 p.m. PT.