March 19, 2015
SAN DIEGO - The No. 38 San Diego State men's tennis team lost a close, hard-fought match to No. 33 Drake, 4-2, on Thursday afternoon in the first day of the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Tennis Classic at Aztec Tennis Center.
The loss snaps SDSU's (10-5, 1-1 MW) six-match winning streak, and was the Aztecs' first home loss of the 2015 dual season. Prior to Thursday, San Diego State's last home loss came on March 13, 2014, to No. 10-ranked Duke.
It also took over three hours to decide, as the Aztecs played hard to very end despite falling behind early.
"This was one heck of a college tennis match today," SDSU head coach Gene Carswell said. "Our guys did a great job of fighting out of a deep hole, and almost came all the way back. We have to bounce back and get ready for (Friday) with a mindset of getting out of the starting blocks a little quicker."
In doubles action to begin the match, SDSU dropped the doubles point for only the second time in its last seven dual matches. The Aztecs' No. 2 duo of senior Thorsten Bertsch (Mannheim, Germany) and sophomore Jonas Meinzer (Buggingen, Germany) fell to Alen Salibasic and Ben Mullis, 6-1, while San Diego State's No. 1 and 63rd-ranked team of junior Freddy Gelbrich (Isernhagen, Germany) and sophomore Hendrik Jebens (Stuttgart, Germany) came up short against Ben Lott and Bayo Philips, 6-3.
With the doubles point decided, San Diego State's No. 3 team of senior Andranik Khachatryan (Burbank, Calif.) and sophomore Marko Goles-Babic (Zagreb, Croatia) were locked in a tight battle with Matt Frost and Ravi Patel, 4-4, in a match that went unfinished.
Singles play started with SDSU sophomore Saxon Buehning dropping his No. 6 singles match to Philips, 6-2, 6-3, but Goles-Babic got the Aztecs' first point of the match with a decision over Patel, 7-5, 6-4, on the No. 4 court. Sophomore Milen Ianakiev (Elz, Germany) had a big lead early in his first set on the No. 5 court, but had it slip away in a tight match against Calum MacGeoch, 7-6 (8), 7-6 (3), as Drake took a 3-1 lead.
Gelbrich, the reigning Mountain West Player of the Week, kept the Aztecs alive with his No. 1 singles come-from-behind victory against 42nd-ranked Salibasic, 3-6, 7-6 (0), 6-3, but Bertsch fell short in an intense three-set battle on the No. 2 court against 38th-ranked Lott, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3, as Drake clinched the dual-match win. In addition, Jebens played Frost to a three-set stalemate on the No. 3 court, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 5-5, that went unfinished.
San Diego State resumes tournament play on Friday, as the Aztecs take on Middle Tennessee State beginning at 2 p.m. PT at Aztec Tennis Center.