LAS VEGAS – On Tuesday, the Mountain West Conference announced its men's tennis awards for this season and San Diego State players Johannes Seeman and Chikaya Sato were named to both the All-Mountain West Singles and All-Mountain West Doubles teams for the 2022-23 season.
In his third season on The Mesa, Seeman has played in 16 of 17 matches for San Diego State, suiting up in the top spot in the lineup for each of those. He leads the team with 14 singles wins and is tied for a team leading five dual singles victories. He got off to a hot start in the spring, winning each of his first four matches (Arkansas, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Loyola Marymount) with the first three coming in straight sets. His play against Arkansas earned him the first Mountain West Player of the Week award of the season on January 18. The four consecutive wins marked the longest individual winning streak of the season for the Scarlet and Black and was not matched until Eugenio Gonzalez Fitzmaurice won his final four matches of the regular season. Seeman also earned a singles win against No. 63-ranked Boise State, who will be SDSU's opponent in the first round of the Mountain West Championship. This is the fourth consecutive season that Seeman has been named to at least one All-Mountain West team. He made the doubles team in 2019-20, both singles and doubles in 2020-21 and the singles team in 2021-22.
A transfer from Penn State, Sato, with Alexander Mandma, was one of just two Aztecs to play in all 17 regular season matches. He played on the second court in 16 of those competitions and the top court for the match that Seeman missed. Sato is one of several San Diego State players to tie for the team lead with five dual wins on his way to eight total singles victories. He played his best tennis early and late, winning his first two matches (Arkansas and San Francisco) and taking three of four (UNLV, UC San Diego, Nevada) during a stretch in April. On March 8, he was named the Mountain West Player of the Week for his doubles play with Seeman against UC Santa Barbara and in the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships.
The pairing served as the top doubles team in 14 matches. They were ranked No. 80 on March 7 after winning the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships. The event is the second oldest men's tennis tournament in the United States and featured a 128-team bracket. Seeman and Sato won seven straight matches to win it all. The duo led the Aztecs with 14 wins overall and finished second with four dual wins. Their best dual win was knocking off UC Santa Barbara's No. 25-ranked team of Kai Brady and Phillip Jordan on March 2, heading into the doubles tournament. They were one of just five doubles teams to win against Boise State's top doubles combo of Simon Arca Costas and Michael Bott.
San Diego State, the 6-seed, is scheduled to face No. 72 Boise State, the 3-seed, in the opening round of the Mountain West Championship tomorrow, April 26, in Las Vegas, at 5 p.m. PT.