The Pacific Coast Doubles Championships took place at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club for the 113th consecutive year March 1 and 2.
The tournament has attracted pairings from five of the schools ranked in the top 10 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association: Top-ranked Stanford, No. 4 USC, No. 5 UCLA, No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 9 Pepperdine.
This event also featured the No. 1 singles player at the collegiate level: K.J. Hippinsteel from Stanford University.
The UCSD tennis team sent four teams in this tournament and fared pretty well despite three first-round losses.
Tritons Dan Albrecht and Mike Meyer faced Hippinsteel and Ryan Haviland — the top Stanford doubles team and the No. 7 doubles team in the nation.
Meyer and Albrecht played a tough match, but the Stanford duo, seeded No. 4 in the tournament, dominated the match, winning 6-1, 6-1.
During the match, Meyer sustained a serious ankle sprain, and according to men’s tennis head coach Eric Steidlmayer, is unsure if he can play in Monday’s match against Division I Boston College.
UCSD’s Bryan Swatt also injured his elbow while teaming up with Sameer Chopra against the No. 8 seed. Swatt and Chopra gave Ashok Raju and James Malhame from Notre Dame a run for their money, but eventually dropped the match 6-4, 6-4.
Doug Hoffman and Amir Nejad encountered the No. 5 seed in the first round. Pepperdine’s duo of Sebastian Graeff and Stefan Suter were too much for the Tritons, and the UCSD team fell 6-3, 6-3.
The UCSD team that prevailed in the first round was Everett Schroeter and Jeff Wilson. After losing the first set, Wilson and Schroeter picked up their game and beat UC Berkeley’s doubles team of Patrick Briaud and Lan Bale 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Schroeter and Wilson then had a tough loss to Pepperdine’s Brian Wright and Calle Hansen duo 6-2, 6-4 in the second round.
In the face of its top-notch competition, Steidlmayer was pleased with his team’s effort this weekend.
“”We had a couple good matches, but these guys were coming from the top 10 teams in the nation,”” he said. “”Some of these players will be future pros, and the tennis played at this tournament was phenomenal.””
