April 23, 2015
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -
The San Diego State men's tennis team defeated UNLV in a closely-contested match on Thursday. The opening round of the Mountain West Championship proved to be challenging for the third-seeded Aztecs. No. 6 UNLV put up a fight after falling behind early but SDSU was able to put the Rebels away in singles play. The Aztecs will face seventh-seeded Nevada on Saturday at 9 a.m. MT.
SDSU, which is ranked No. 38 in the nation, got an early lead by taking the doubles point. On the second court, Ruben Alberts and Jakob Amilon defeated Thorsten Bertsch and Jonas Meinzer, 6-3, to give UNLV the early advantage. The 60th-ranked duo and all-conference doubles team of Freddy Gelbrich and Hendrik Jebens evened things up for the Aztecs as they downed Adam Gage-Brown and Ace Matias in the top spot, 6-4. Court No. 3 was the decider as Marko Goles-Babic and Santiago Cevallos claimed the point in the match-tiebreaker over Denys Pume and Alexandr Cozbinov, 7-6 (8-6).
Recently named co-Mountain West Player of the Year, Gelbrich, was the first Aztec to claim a singles point. The 125th-ranked singles player handled No. 122 Matias in the top spot, 6-1, 6-4. In the second position, Jebens defeated Pume, 6-3, 6-3, to put San Diego State within a point of advancing.
The Rebels would not go away quietly as Amilon put UNLV on the board by topping Bertsch, 6-4, 6-3. In the sixth spot, Alberts gave the Rebels their second point by getting past Meinzer, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). The final two matches on courts No. 4 and 5 went into a third-set tiebreaker with San Diego State needing one point to win and UNLV battling to stay alive. The match in the fifth spot would be the first to finish and decide the match in favor of the Aztecs. Milen Ianakiev outlasted Cozbinov, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, to advance SDSU to the semifinals.
San Diego State will face seventh-seeded Nevada on Saturday, April 25 at 9 a.m. MT. The winner will advance to the championship match on Sunday.