SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. – The San Diego State men's tennis team has four players playing in this weekend's UCSB Fall Classic at the Arnhold Tennis Center in Santa Barbara, California. Mathieu Josserand, Robin Parts, Andre Saleh and Liam Spiers won three of their six matches yesterday and continued their .500 play by taking four of eight matches on Saturday.
After beating one Westmont Warrior yesterday, Spiers went up against another today in Ethan Ha. Spiers did even better than yesterday, winning 6-0, 6-2 to advance to his bracket's championship. In that championship match, he will go up against Grand Canyon's Wyatt Anderson.
Parts and Josserand faced UC Irvine's Rithvik Krishna and Matthew Sah. The Aztecs held on to win 8-6 to move to the consolation final.
Coming off a win yesterday, Josserand went up against Cal Poly's Bastiaan Weststrate. Josserand won by a consistent 6-4, 6-4. In the semifinals, he faced host UC Santa Barbara's Pierre Boullenger. Boullenger ended up on top 6-4, 7-5. Josserand will face Loyola Marymount's Max Wuefling for third place tomorrow. Wuefling narrowly beat Saleh in the opening round of the tournament.
Parts opposed Cal Poly's Colter Smith. He jumped out to an early lead by taking the first set 6-4 but lost the lead and the second set 7-4. The deciding third set went to a tiebreaker, which Parts won 7-6 (7-5). In the consolation semifinals, Parts battled UC Santa Barbara's Conrad Brown but fell 6-4, 7-5. He will wrap up his tournament against UC Irvine's Lawee Sherif.
Saleh battled Grand Canyon's Paolo Rosati. The match could not have been much closer, going to a pair of tiebreakers and a deciding third set. Saleh took the first set in the tiebreaker 7-6 (7-3) but the victory went the other way in the second with Rosati winning by the same score. Rosati carried that momentum into the third set to win 6-2. Saleh will finish his UCSB Fall Classic against Loyola Marymount's Alexander Northduft on Sunday.
After an uncontested 8-2 win yesterday, Saleh and Spiers advanced to play Grand Canyon's Rosati and Alfred Almasi. They came up short this time, however, losing 8-6. The Aztecs will face Grand Canyon's Jonathan Da Silva and Anderson for third place tomorrow.
The UCSB Fall Classic wraps up tomorrow. You can follow along with the action on the ITA website: https://colleges.wearecollegetennis.com/Competitions/ITA/Tournaments/overview/1B87F32D-C9F2-46B6-9C8B-466BE9985333
UCSB Fall Classic
Arnhold Tennis Center
Santa Barbara, Calif.
San Diego State's Day Two Results
Liam Spiers (SDSU) def. Ethan Ha (Westmont) 6-0, 6-2
Parts/Josserand (SDSU) def. Krishna/Sah (UCI) 8-6
Mathieu Josserand (SDSU) def. Bastiaan Weststrate (Cal Poly) 6-4, 6-4
Pierre Boullenger (UCSB) def. Mathieu Josserand (SDSU) 6-4, 7-5
Robin Parts (SDSU) def. Colter Smith (Cal Poly) 6-4, 4-7, 7-6 (7-5)
Conrad Brown (UCSB) def. Robin Parts (SDSU) 6-4, 7-5
Paolo Rosati (GCU) def. Andre Saleh (SDSU) 6-7 (7-3), 7-6 (7-3), 6-2
Rosati/Almasi (GCU) def. Saleh/Spiers (SDSU) 8-6