Coach Eric Steidlmayer and the Triton tennis squad are still undefeated.
Guardian
The men’s tennis team wasted no time securing its win over Sonoma State on Sunday, bringing its record to 8-0.
The Tritons jumped out to a 3-0 lead against the Cossacks after sweeping the doubles.
Sophomores Nick Morton and Blake Wilson-Hayden teamed up for the first time and posted an 8-3 win in the No. 3 doubles position.
Sameer Chopra and Bryan Swatt played their usual No. 1 spot and scored an 8-5 victory, while the No. 2 team of Jeff Wilson and Everett Schroeter sealed the sweep with an 8-5 win.
Sonoma State put up a better fight in the singles matches, but the Triton lineup stayed strong.
Swatt moved to the No. 1 spot for the day and even though he played tough, Sonoma’s Mark Krzyik pulled out the second-set tiebreaker to win in straight sets.
Other notables were No. 5 Doug Hoffman and No. 6 Sean Higginbotham. It was Higginbotham’s debut in the singles lineup.
Both players won their matches, with Hoffman losing only two games 6-2, 6-0. Higginbotham reported a similar victory (6-3, 6-0), surrendering only three games to Sonoma’s Glen Smith.
The ninth win of the year for men’s tennis came Tuesday afternoon when Point Loma Nazarene fell victim to the Tritons 7-2.
This time, the doubles squad did not sweep all the matches, but the No. 2 and No. 3 positions of Schroeter/Wilson and Meyer/Albrecht secured 8-2 and 8-5 wins, respectively, to go into singles play with a 2-1 lead.
All the singles positions except Chopra at No. 1 recorded straight-set victories.
Chopra battled with Point Loma’s Rodrigo Suarez and lost, despite Chopra’s victorious first set and a match point in the second set. Suarez prevailed in the long match, narrowly winning 6-3, 6-7, 10-7.
After the match, Steidlmayer was thrilled with his team’s efforts.
“”We played well today in nearly every match, and the one doubles match where we were not doing well, we fought hard to come back,”” Steidlmayer said. “”I think that every individual focused really well today.””
This team has had some great wins this year, and are playing above par right now. Earlier in the season, the Tritons beat College of the Desert, the No. 1 junior college tennis program in the nation.
This weekend the Tritons enter the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships at La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. The team will be challenged by Division I schools such as Pepperdine, UCLA, Stanford, USC and Notre Dame.
