Sept. 21, 2017
SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State men's tennis team opens its 2017 fall schedule this weekend when it travels to the desert for the Wildcat Invitational, Sept. 22-24, in Tucson, Arizona.
A total of four Aztecs will compete at the Ventana Canyon Golf and Racquet Club, including sophomores David Hough and Nicholas Mitchell, along with freshmen Jan Kirchhoff and Ignacio Martinez.
Mitchell earned a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed in the Navy Singles Draw, where he will battle either No. 8 Gregoire Balenci of Grand Canyon or Enrique Asmar of New Mexico State no earlier than noon PT on Friday. In addition, Hough received the No. 5 seed in the bracket and will face Frederick Grant, another Grand Canyon adversary, no sooner than 9:30 a.m. PT.
Conversely, Kirchhoff and Martinez will make their first appearances in an SDSU uniform competing in the Cardinal Singles Draw. The third-seeded Kirchhoff will lock horns with Jeremy Moser of Fresno State no earlier than 8:30 a.m. PT, while Martinez is scheduled to engage fourth-seeded Trent Botha of host Arizona at approximately the same time.
Doubles play also commences on Friday when Kirchhoff and Martinez join forces in the Cardinal Draw for an opening-round clash against the Arizona combo of Andres Reyes and Carlos Hassey.
Meanwhile, the top-seeded tandem Hough and Mitchell have earned a bye before facing either the Grand Canyon duo of Balenci and Valentine Lang or the Northern Arizona pairing of Chris Steele and Sebastian Eguez in the same bracket on Saturday morning
As a freshman last season, Hough posted a 7-10 singles record, including a 5-6 mark in tournament action, while Mitchell went 3-3 in singles last fall in his rookie campaign.
Following the Wildcat Invitational, San Diego State will return to the courts for the ITA All-American Championships, Sept. 30-Oct. 8, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.