Sept. 27, 2015
TUCSON, Ariz. - Four Aztecs competed at the Wildcat Invitational to open the fall campaign at Ventana Canyon Resort this weekend, with Jonas Meinzer, Raul De la Torre, Santiago Cevallos and Sander Gjoles-Anderson kicking off San Diego State's 2015-16 season.
Meinzer advanced to the singles final, DeLaTorre and Cevallos each went 1-1 in singles play, and Gjoles-Anderson was 2-0 in the tournament. The doubles tandem of Cevallos and Meinzer posted a 1-1 mark, and the pairing of Gjoles-Anderson and De la Torre was 0-2.
In the first round of the main draw, Cevallos and Meinzer defeated Arizona's Trent Botha and Will Adkisson, but were knocked off in the second round by Ruben Weber and Jeremy Lynn from Minnesota. Shoki Kasahara and Jason Jaruvang of Arizona topped Gjoles-Anderson and De la Torre, 8-3. In the consolation round, the duo fell to Alex Santiago and Jason Lee from San Francisco.
In singles play, Gjoles-Anderson won his first set against Christopher Gonclaves of New Mexico State, 7-5, fell behind by a 4-6 margin, but rebounded to win the match with a 6-2 final set. Also beating his opponent, Meinzer defeated New Mexico State's Stijn DeHaan, 6-4, 7-6. Minnesota's Weber narrowly topped Cevallos 7-5, 7-6, and De la Torre fell to Arizona's Trevor James, succumbing to a 6-2 first set, taking the second set, 6-4, but dropping the final set, 6-1.
Gjoles-Anderson continued his strong play on the second day of the tournament. He was handed a 6-1 loss in his first set of the day, against Arizona's Trent Botha, but rallied with 7-6 and 6-3 sets to beat Botha. Meinzer defeated Mesa Junior College's Sam Cohen 6-2, 6-1, advancing Meinzer to the tournament's fourth round. De la Torre was topped by Minnesota's Justyn Levin 6-3, 6-2, and Cevallos fell to Tim Handel from Northern Arizona, 6-2, 6-2.
In the fourth round, Meinzer suffered setbacks 6-3, 7-6 setbacks at the hands of New Mexico State's Strahinja Trecakov. De la Torre and Cevallos each won their play-in matches, with De la Torre defeating Northern Arizona's Fisher, 6-2, 6-4, and Cevallos cruised to a win over Arizona's James with 6-1, 7-5 victories.
San Diego State continues fall tournament action by hosting the Aztec Fall Invitational Oct. 9 through Oct. 11.