March 3, 2017
LA JOLLA, Calif. -- The San Diego State men's tennis program had four doubles teams post victories Friday in the opening round of the 128th annual Pacific Coast Men's Doubles Championships at La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club.
The Aztec pairing of junior Santiago Cevallos and sophomore Sander Gjoels-Andersen began the day with a convincing 8-1 triumph over Blake Suard and Tanner Suard, but was unable to advance in the main draw, falling to the UC Davis tandem of Alec Adamson and Tommy Lam by a narrow 8-6 margin.
In addition, the SDSU duo of seniors Marko Goles-Babic and Milen Ianakiev experienced a similar fate, logging an 8-0 shutout of Nico Drakulich and Bob Drakulich before dropping a tough 9-7 decision to UCLA's Martin Redlicki and Evan Zhu in the round of 64.
The Aztec freshman combo of Rafael Gonzalez Almazan and Joel Popov also emerged triumphant in the round of 128 with an 8-1 conquest of Kevin Mullins and Sean Mullins, but had their progress in the bracket stymied by the Stanford tandem of Micheal Genender and Sameer Kumar, 8-2.
Two additional SDSU freshmen joined forces on Friday, but Nicholas Mitchell and David Hough suffered an 8-4 defeat at the hands of USC's David Laser and Logan Smith in their main draw encounter. The Aztec teammates returned to face UC Davis' David Goulak and Eli Whittle later in the third round of the consolation bracket, but came up on the wrong side of an 8-2 score.
Elsewhere, SDSU head coach Gene Carswell and assistant coach Jeff Thomsen combined for a pair of victories in the main draw as well on Friday. The Aztec duo doubled up on the pairing of Adam Levie and Toki Sherbakov, 8-4, before posting an 8-5 decision over Daniel Minami and Marius Ruh. However, the Scarlet and Black leaders saw their run in the bracket come to an end after experiencing an 8-6 heartbreaker to Gregory Ouellette and Thomas Fawcett in the round of 32.
The second-oldest tennis event in the United States, the Pacific Coast Men's Doubles Championships features tandems from multiple college teams, including nationally ranked squads in No. 7 California, No. 11 Oklahoma State, No. 16 Stanford, No. 21 UCLA and No. 32 USC. In addition to the Aztecs, Pepperdine and Boise State, the field also features competitors from such schools as Boston College, Indiana, Portland, Toledo, UC Davis, UC Davis, USD, Villanova and William & Mary.
The action continues with main draw and consolation matches Saturday and Sunday. Updated draws may be accessed by clicking the link at the top of the page.
San Diego State returns to dual-match competition on Sunday when it hosts Boise State in the Mountain West opener for both teams, beginning at 10 a.m. PT.