Jan. 28, 2016
SAN DIEGO - The No. 38 San Diego State men's tennis team travels to Northern California on Sat., Jan. 30 at 1 p.m. to take on No. 17 Stanford at the Broadway Tennis Center in Burlingame, Calif.
Last weekend, the Cardinal (3-1) narrowly missed a berth to the Division I National Team Indoor Championships after falling to No. 16 Columbia, 4-3, in the second day of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. Tom Fawcett, the ninth-ranked singles player in the country, has won all of his singles matches to open the 2016 dual campaign, winning in straight sets to earn each victory. Fawcett is one of four Stanford players ranked, joined by No. 57 David Wilczynski, No. 61 Michael Genender and No. 89 Maciek Romanowicz.
San Diego State dropped to 1-2 last weekend after a 4-0 loss at No. 3 TCU and a heartbreaking defeat against No. 32 Harvard at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. In Fort Worth, Texas, No. 53 Freddy Gelbrich (Isernhagen, Germany), who won the season's first Mountain West Player of the Week honor, improved to 4-0 in singles play with a come-from-behind 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 71 Nicky Hu of Harvard on Jan. 24. Along with doubles partner Hendrik Jebens (Stuttgart, Germany), the redshirt senior, who opened 2016 by winning the singles title at the National Collegiate Tennis Classic (NCTC), suffered a close loss at the hands of the Horned Frogs' Cameron Norrie and Trevor Johnson on court No. 1, 6-4.
The doubles team of Milen Ianakiev (Elz, Hesse, Germany) and Marko Goles-Babic (Zagreb, Croatia) has also seen a great deal of success on the court early in the year, posting a 4-1 mark and capturing the doubles title at the NCTC. The duo also produced a dominating 6-2 win over Guillermo Nunez and Jerry Lopez of No. 3 TCU on their home court at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend.
The Aztecs face Stanford for just the second time in the program's history. In 2003, then ranked No. 33 San Diego State lost a 6-1 decision to then No. 7 Stanford at Stanford's Taube Tennis Center.
After their dual match against the Cardinal, San Diego State will venture to San Luis Obispo, Calif., to take on Saint Mary's on Feb. 6 and Cal Poly on Feb. 7. Both matches will start at noon.