UCSanDiego Men’s Tennis
TRITONS FALL ON THE ROAD AT AZUSA
The UC San Diego men’s tennis team fell on the road last Friday to Azusa Pacific, 8-1, snapping the Tritons’ three-match winning streak. The Tritons dropped to 4-3 overall while APU improved to 2-1 with the win. The Cougars are ranked No. 5 in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Despite the Tritons leading early in the doubles matches to open up Friday’s competition, APU ended up sweeping that portion. In the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles positions, Erik Elliott and Jake Fellow lost to the Cougars’ Matthijs Bolsius and Jochem and Hoefnagels while Chapman Chan and Armaun Emami were defeated by APU’s Janosch Apelt and Mathias Weber. Both matches ended in 8-6 scores. The lone point attained by the Tritons Friday came from a 6-3, 6-3 singles victory at the No. 6 position by freshman Junya Yoshida over Ilja Ikonnikov. Yoshida, an Irvine native, holds a 4-0 record in his first season competing for UCSD. Elliott suffered his first singles loss of 2010 at the No. 1 position, dropping a tough match to Bolsius. The contest featured a tiebreaker and ended at 7-5, 5-7 (10-4).
NGUYEN’S FIVE VICTORIES LEADS TEAM
Junior captain Vincent Nguyen, playing mostly out of the squad’s No. 4 singles position, leads the Tritons in wins with five through the early stages of the 2010 season. The San Jose native was honored in 2009 with the ITA/Arthur Ashe Jr. Leadership and Sportsmanship Award during Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.
SCOUTING THE SUNBIRDS OF FPU
In 2009, the Fresno Pacific men’s tennis team won the school’s national tennis championship as part of the NAIA. Despite losing three key members of last year’s title run, the Sunbirds were ranked No. 1 in the NAIA preseason poll. FPU has not disappointed through the early part of this season, jumping out to a 4-0 start. The Tritons and Sunbirds met last April in La Jolla, with FPU walking away with a 9-0 sweep. The Sunbirds are led by Xavier Smith in the singles ladder, followed by an undefeated Alex Gonzalez at the No. 2 spot.
SCOUTING THE HIGHLANDERS OF UCR
The UC Riverside men’s tennis squad finished 2009 with a 5-18 overall record while playing out of Division I’s Big West Conference. The Highlanders have gotten off to a 3-4 start this season and enter Saturday’s match looking to snap out of a three-match losing streak. UCSD and UCR last met on Feb. 1, 2008, when the Tritons opened that season in fine fashion with an impressive 6-1 victory over the Highlanders. This year’s captain, Nguyen, earned a point for UCSD that day with a victory at No. 6 singles, 6-4, 6-4.
1/30
January
at Univ. of San Diego
Exhibition
February
2/1 2/12 2/12 2/13 2/14 2/14 2/19 2/26 2/27
vs. Concordia L, 3-6 vs. Grand Canyon # W, 8-1 vs. BYU Hawaii # L, 4-5 vs. Western New Mexico # W, 7-2 vs. Montana St. Billings # W, 8-1 vs. Midwestern State # W, 6-3 at Azusa Pacific L, 1-8 vs. Fresno Pacific 3 p.m. at UC Riverside 12 p.m.
3/1 3/2 3/4-7 3/8 3/10 3/12 3/13 3/22 3/24
vs. Villanova vs. Cal Poly Pomona Pacific Coast Doubles vs. Rollins College vs. Western New Mexico vs. Sonoma State vs. Hawaii Hilo vs. Dartmouth College at BYU Hawaii
4/6 4/9 4/10 4/11 4/15
at Point Loma Nazarene at UC Davis at UC Santa Cruz at Sonoma State at Cal Poly Pomona
March
April
May
5/8-10 NCAA West Regional 5/14-17 NCAA Championships
2 p.m. 2 p.m. All Day 2 p.m. 3 p.m. 2 p.m. 2 p.m. 12 p.m. 2 p.m. 2 p.m. 2 p.m. 9:30 a.m. 11 a.m. 1:30 p.m. TBA TBA
Home matches at Northview Tennis Courts # Paseo Tournament in Phoenix, Ariz.
2010 UC San Diego Roster Name Class Hometown Agbayani, Ryan R-Fr. Yorba Linda, Calif. Atlan, Justin Fr. Pacific Palisades, Calif. Chan, Chapman So. Westlake Village, Calif. Dixit, Naveen So. Los Altos Hills, Calif. Elliott, Erik Jr. San Juan Capistrano, Calif. Emami, Armaun Jr. Oxnard, Calif. Fellow, Jake So. Poway, Calif. Ling, Sam So. Los Altos, Calif. Mendonsa, Eric So. Corona, Calif. Nguyen, Vincent Jr. San Jose, Calif. Wall, Jason Jr. Long Beach, Calif. West, Austin R-Fr. Greenwood Village, Colo. Yoshida, Junya Fr. Irvine, Calif.
Match 8
UC San Diego (4-3) vs. Fresno Pacific (4-0) Friday, Feb. 26 3 p.m.
Match 9
UC San Diego (4-2) at UC Riverside (3-4) Saturday, Feb. 27 12 p.m.