April 12, 2015
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The No. 37 San Diego State men's tennis team suffered a setback in Mountain West play on Sunday afternoon, dropping its match to conference foe No. 45 New Mexico, 4-2, at McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium.
SDSU (16-7, 4-2 MW) lost for just the second time in its last eight matches, as its four-match MW winning streak was snapped in the process.
The day began with San Diego State losing the doubles point for the first time in its last five dual matches, as the Aztecs No. 1 duo and 60th-ranked team of junior Freddy Gelbrich (Isernhagen, Germany) and sophomore Hendrik Jebens (Stuttgart, Germany) fell short against Bart Van Leijsen and Hayden Sabatka, 6-4.
The Lobos clinched the point when the Aztecs No. 3 unit of senior Andranik Khachatryan (Burbank, Calif.) and sophomore Marko Goles-Babic (Zagreb, Croatia) lost its match to Samir Iftikhar and Mitchell McDaniels, 6-4. With the doubles point already decided, SDSU's No. 2 team of senior Thorsten Bertsch (Mannheim, Germany) and sophomore Jonas Meinzer (Buggingen, Germany) trailed Augustus Ge and James Hignett, 5-4, in a match that went unfinished.
Sophomore Milen Ianakiev (Elz, Germany) tied the dual match, 1-1, with his No. 5 singles victory over Hignett, 6-1, 6-3, but 105th-ranked Gelbrich dropped his match on the No. 1 court to Sabatka, 7-5, 6-4.
Goles-Babic came up short in his No. 4 singles match to Van Leijsen, 6-3, 7-6 (5), however, Jebens kept the Aztecs alive with his straight-sets win on the No. 2 court over 82nd-ranked Iftikhar, 6-2, 6-4, for his 13th-consecutive singles victory.
It wasn't enough though, as Bertsch lost a hard-fought, three-set No. 3 singles match to McDaniels, 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, to clinch the dual-match victory for New Mexico. With the final outcome decided, Meinzer was locked in a three-set battle with Ge on the No. 6 court, 7-5, 4-6, 4-1.
San Diego State wraps up the 2015 dual season when it plays host to UNLV on Saturday, April 18, beginning at noon PT.