March 15, 2017
SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State men's tennis team welcomes a challenging field of opponents to "America's Finest City" this week for the San Diego Spring Break Tournament, March 16-18. Along with the Aztecs, the seventh annual event will be co-hosted by the University of San Diego and will feature a pair of top 50 squads in No. 25 Oregon and No. 30 Tulane, while Arizona, Drake, Harvard and Iowa round out the list of competing teams.
On Thursday, SDSU will square off against Oregon in its tournament opener at home, beginning at 2 p.m., following the Iowa-Harvard match, which is set to get underway at 10 a.m. Over on the USD campus, Tulane will battle Arizona, starting at 10 a.m., while the Toreros face Drake at 2 p.m.
On Friday, the Aztecs will engage either Harvard or Iowa at 2 p.m., with Saturday's slate to be determined. Should San Diego State and USD advance to the final round, the championship match will be played at Aztec Tennis Center, where the Toreros posted a 4-2 win earlier this season on Feb. 4 in the regularly scheduled battle of crosstown adversaries.
SDSU finds itself at 5-7 on the year after suffering a pair of tough 4-0 defeats last weekend to No. 26 Memphis and No. 4 Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla.
Senior Milen Ianakiev (Elz, Hesse, Germany) are freshman Joel Popov (Tampere, Finland) are tied for the team lead with five singles victories apiece in dual-match play, while senior Marko Goles-Babic (Zagreb, Croatia), junior Santiago Cevallos (Queretaro, Mexico) and freshman Rafael Gonzalez Almazan (Madrid, Spain) have recorded four each. Alternating between the two spots in the Aztec rotation, Ianakiev has racked up three wins in the No. 1 position, while Goles-Babic has collected three of his own at No. 2. In doubles competition, the tandem of Goles-Babic and sophomore Sander Gjoels-Andersen (Klampenborg, Denmark) has compiled four victories this spring, matching the duo of Gonzalez Almazan and Popov. SDSU has emerged with the doubles point in six matches this year.
The Ducks, meanwhile, have won three straight to raise their record to 11-2 on the season. Oregon is coming off a 4-3 victory at UC Santa Barbara on March 5. Individually, the Ducks are led by Thomas Laurent, the nation's 40th-ranked singles player who owns a 22-2 record, including an 11-0 mark in the No. 1 position this spring. Against the Gauchos, the Oregon sophomore set a program record with his 16th consecutive victory. In addition, senior Jayson Amos has amassed seven wins in dual matches playing primarily in the No. 3 spot, junior Simon Stevens has pocketed six victories at No. 2. The Ducks also boast the No. 42 doubles tandem in Amos and sophomore Armando Soemarno, who are 7-1 in the No. 1 position. Not to be outdone, Laurent has joined forces with junior Cormac Clissold to post a 9-1 record this spring alternating between the second and third spots.
San Diego State is 1-2 in three all-time encounters with Oregon, including a 4-0 setback at home in the last meeting between the two sides in 2014. Against Friday's potential opponents, the Aztecs are 3-0 against Iowa, including a 5-2 triumph at home in 2015, but are just 4-8 vs. Harvard all-time. SDSU experienced a 4-1 loss to the Crimson on the final day of last year's Spring Break Tournament.
Following this week's action, the Aztecs will return to Mountain West action on Saturday, March 25, when they travel to Utah State for a conference showdown, starting at 12:30 p.m. PT.