April 8, 2015
SAN DIEGO - The No. 37 San Diego State men's tennis team lost a close, hard-fought match to No. 18 University of San Diego, 4-2, in front of a large crowd at Aztec Tennis Center on Wednesday afternoon.
The loss snaps SDSU's five-match winning streak, and is only the Aztecs' second home loss all season. But despite the loss, San Diego State (15-6, 3-1 MW) is still 16-13 all-time against USD (17-4, 6-0 WCC).
The Aztecs began the match strong by claiming the doubles point for the 10th time in their last 13 matches. SDSU's No. 2 team of senior Thorsten Bertsch (Mannheim, Germany) and sophomore Jonas Meinzer (Buggingen, Germany) defeated Romain Kalaydijan and Uros Petronijevic, 6-2, while San Diego State's No. 1 team and 60th-ranked duo of junior Freddy Gelbrich (Isernhagen, Germany) and sophomore Hendrik Jebens (Stuttgart, Germany) knocked off USD's 34th-ranked team of Jordan Angus and Filip Vittek, 6-2.
With the doubles point all wrapped up, SDSU's No. 3 unit of sophomore Marko Goles-Babic (Zagreb, Croatia) and senior Andranik Khachatryan (Burbank, Calif.) was well on its way to a victory over Ciaran Fitzgerald and Geoffrey Foss, leading by a score of 5-2.
However, things took a turn for the worst in singles action. Gelbrich, ranked 105th in the nation and the reigning Mountain West Player of the Week, fell short in his No. 1 singles match to 46th-ranked Petronijevic, 6-2, 6-2, and Bertsch dropped his match on the No. 2 court to 67th-ranked Vittek, 6-4, 6-2.
Jebens tied the dual match at 2-2 with his three-set, come-from-behind No. 3 singles victory over Angus, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, but USD regained control as Khachatryan lost in three sets on the No. 6 court to Fitzgerald, 6-0, 6-7 (4), 6-4.
Goles-Babic played perhaps the most intense match of the day on the No. 4 court, but ultimately fell short in a hard-fought, three-set battle against Kalaydijan, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (6), 6-3, as the Toreros clinched the dual-match victory. In addition, sophomore Milen Ianakiev (Elz, Germany) was still competing in an entertaining No. 5 singles match against Fosso that went unfinished in the third set, 5-7, 7-5, 3-3, once USD sealed the victory.
San Diego State returns to action this weekend, as the Aztecs resume MW play at Air Force on Friday, beginning at 1 p.m. MT, before playing at New Mexico on Sunday at 2 p.m. MT.