Feb. 14, 2018
SAN DIEGO – In search of its first victory of the season, the San Diego State men's tennis team travels to the Silver State this weekend to battle UNLV and Oregon in a pair of dual matches at Fertita Tennis Complex in Las Vegas, Nev.
The Aztecs will engage their first Mountain West opponent of the 2018 campaign when they lock horns with the host Rebels on Friday, Feb. 16, at 4 p.m. PT, before tangling with the Ducks in a neutral-site encounter on Saturday, Feb. 17, starting at 11 a.m. PT.
SDSU (0-6) dropped a pair of road matches to formidable Southeastern Conference foes Mississippi State and Alabama last weekend. Sophomore David Hough picked up the Aztecs' lone victory in a 6-1 to the 14th-ranked Bulldogs with a straight-set triumph at No. 6 singles, while fellow classmate Arnaud Restifo snapped a personal four-match slide with a victory at No. 2 in a 4-1 loss to the red-hot Crimson Tide, who have won 12 straight duals to start the season.
Sophomore Rafael Gonzalez Almazan leads the Aztecs with nine wins on the year, while fellow classmate Joel Popov has pocketed eight victories of his own. In doubles play, Gonzalez Almazan has teamed with junior Raul de la Torre to post a 7-4 record overall, including a 6-2 mark during the fall tournament schedule.
UNLV (4-3) had its three-match winning streak snapped in a 5-2 loss at UCLA on Feb. 10. However, Rebel senior Alexandr Cozbinov upset Martin Redlicki in three sets after his Bruin adversary entered the contest ranked No. 1 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) singles poll. With his triumph, Cozbinov has won three straight to raise his record to 4-2 in dual matches at the No. 1 position.
In addition, Eric Samuelsson has recorded three victories in the second slot this spring and has teamed with Clayton Alenik to post a trio of wins at No. 3 doubles, while Cozbinov and Courtney Lock have claimed three triumph at the top of the rotation.
SDSU is 22-10 against the Rebels since 1989 and has won eight of the last nine meetings between the two schools, including a 4-2 victory last season at Aztec Tennis Center. In that match, Santiago Cevallos provided the clinching point with a three-set triumph over Ruben Alberts in the No. 4 position. Earlier, the Scarlet and Black survived a hotly contested doubles round with a pair of tiebreakers, with the No. 2 pairing of Sander Gjoels-Andersen and Nicholas Mitchell knocking off the UNLV tandem of Alberts and the since-graduated Adam Gage-Brown 7-6(2) to give the Aztecs a 1-0 lead heading into singles.
SDSU is 100-55 against current members of the Mountain West and has captured five of its last six conference openers. In addition, the Aztecs are 6-7 against UNLV in Las Vegas since 1989, posting back-to-back victories there in 2013-14 followed by a narrow 4-3 defeat in 2016.
On the flip side, San Diego State is 1-3 in four all-time meetings with Oregon, including a 4-0 loss at Aztec Tennis Center last season in the opener of the seventh annual San Diego Spring Break Tournament.
The Ducks (5-2) have won two straight matches at home with a 4-0 shutout of Pepperdine on Feb. 4, followed by a 5-2 conquest of Wisconsin on Feb. 9.
Oregon sports four players with double-digit singles victories this season, including 12th-ranked Thomas Laurent, who has amassed a 12-3 record, including a 4-1 mark in dual matches at the top of the Ducks' ladder. In addition, Simon Stevens owns a 14-4 ledger overall and a 5-2 record this spring playing primarily in the second spot.
Not to be outdone, Ty Gentry is 13-2 on the year and 4-0 in duals alternating between the fifth and sixth positions, while Cormac Clissold has compiled a 10-2 mark overall and is 4-0 as well this spring rotating between the No. 3, 4 and 5 spots.
Clissold and Laurent have joined forces to earn a No. 17 ITA doubles ranking on the strength of a 10-4 record this season, including a 4-2 mark against nationally ranked foes, while the duo of Stevens and Gentry has fared even better, posting a 14-1 ledger, including an unblemished 6-0 tally in dual matches.
Following Saturday's action, the Aztecs will return to "America's Finest City" on Friday, Feb. 24 to face San Diego in their annual crosstown match at USD's West Courts. First serve is set for 2 p.m. PT.