SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's tennis team returns to action this week with a home match against the No. 10 Harvard Crimson at the Aztec Tennis Center at 2 p.m. PT on Monday, March 13. SDSU will then host the No. 59 Wisconsin Badgers at the same time in the same venue on Wednesday, March 15.
The Scarlet and Black (1-5) will attempt to return to the win column after falling 4-1 to No. 37 UC Santa Barbara at the Aztec Tennis Center on March 2.
San Diego State earned the doubles point in that matchup, which was highlighted by Johannes Seeman and Chikaya Sato taking down Kai Brady and Phillip Jordan, who were ranked No. 25 in the nation at the time. Over the ensuing weekend, Seeman and Sato won seven straight matches to win the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships, including victories over teams from Boston College, California, UC Santa Barbara, Pepperdine and Nebraska. The duo won five of their seven matches in straight sets and came back from being one point away from defeat against UC Santa Barbara's Mrsic/Jordan team in the quarterfinals. The event, the second oldest men's tennis tournament in the United States, featured a 128-team bracket. The performance also earned the pair the No. 80 ranking in this week's ITA poll. They are the first Aztecs doubles pairing to be ranked since Marko Goles-Babic and Milen Ianakiev were ranked No. 51 on March 21, 2017.
The Crimson (6-3) last played in the ECAC Tournament, beating Brown 4-0 on Feb. 17 and Cornell 4-1 on Feb. 18, but losing to No. 19 Columbia 4-3 on Feb. 19. Meanwhile, the Badgers (6-5) lost 6-1 at Drake on Feb. 25.
The last time they played Harvard, the Aztecs were dropped 4-1 by the No. 38 ranked Crimson in 2019. Despite a 4-11 record against Harvard since 1989, San Diego State is 30-16 since Ivy League schools in that time. SDSU has not faced the Badgers in three decades, with the last matchup going to San Diego State 8-1 back in 1993. The Aztecs are 2-2 against Wisconsin and hold an 8-7 edge in the all-time series against the Big Ten.
Harvard has two highly ranked singles players in No. 11 Henry von der Schulenburg and No. 27 Harris Walker. Wisconsin is strong in doubles, led by the No. 36 ranked combo of Gabriel Huber and Michael Minasyan.
The Aztecs will remain in San Diego for the rest of March. They host the San Diego Spring Invitational Friday, March 17 through Sunday, March 19, and SDSU will close out its nonconference schedule with a match against UTSA on Friday, March 31.