After heavy rainfall caused matches on Feb. 17 at Loyola Marymount and Feb. 20 at UC Riverside to be postponed, the No. 10 Triton men’s tennis team sprung back into action, sweeping its Feb. 25 through Feb. 27 homestand at the Northview Tennis Courts. UCSD (4-1) opened its weekend gauntlet against No. 27 Hawaii-Hilo, winning what would become the Tritons’ closest match of the weekend, in a 7-2 victory. The previously undefeated Colorado School of Mines and NCAA West Regional opponent Sonoma State didn’t fare as well as the Vulcans, as both teams were destroyed, 9-0, by UCSD on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27, respectively.
On the third day of match play, the Tritons blanked Sonoma State (1-3), 9-0, extending their current winning streak to four straight victories. The Tritons jumped into the lead early, winning all three doubles matches right off the bat, before going into singles play.
“Sonoma didn’t go down easy, pushing the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles to 8-6,” head coach Eric Steidlmayer said. “[The Seawolves] gave us all we could want at No. 1 and No. 3.”
The Tritons’ young talent showed through during match play; highlights of the singles matchups included freshmen Eric Rubens and Blake Meister, at No. 4 and No. 6, respectively, both winning their matches, 6-0, 6-0. At the No. 3 spot, sophomore Seth Spector held off his opponent, finishing his match in a close 7-6, 6-5 victory.
“[Junior No. 2] Brent Molden really played a solid match,” Steidlmayer said. “Not many errors, some big forehands, serves and some stronger backhands were too much for the Sonoma player.”
On Feb. 26, the second day of the challenge, the men faced an undefeated Colorado School of Mines team, which was 5-0 going into the match. As rain clouds filled the sky and threatened the match, the Tritons seemed to be racing the weather and handed the Orediggers their first loss.
“Our players were more confident and it showed,” Steidlmayer said.
The Tritons gave up a total of eight games in all three doubles matches combined. Both the No. 1 doubles team, made up of Molden and Spector, and the No. 2 team of senior captain Bryan Swatt and Rubens, were able to defeat their opponents, 8-3, while Meister and junior Erik Oijala gave up only two games in an 8-2 defeat over Colorado’s Ben Dunn and Jordan Revielle at No. 3 doubles.
“Swatt played noticeably well in defeating their solid No. 1,” Steidlmayer said. “He routined a guy that isn’t easy to defeat. Overall we played solidly, and it was a good win for our club.”
The Tritons also had very little trouble in the singles line-up, with No. 1 Swatt defeating Colorado’s Matt Rychlik, 6-2, 6-3, while No. 2 Molden outmaneuvered his opponent for a 6-1, 6-4 victory. No. 3 Spector defeated Colorado’s Almed Sejaiti by a score of 6-1, 6-0.
Oijala, playing at No. 4, played an excellent first set, blanking his opponent, 6-0, and closing the match with a 6-4 second set. At No. 5, Meister defeated Revielle, 6-2, 6-3, and freshman Will Phan defeated Dunn in a short 6-2, 6-1. The victory bumped the Tritons’ record to 3-1 going into the Feb. 27 match.
UCSD also won the first match of the three-day competition. On Feb. 25, the men faced rival Hawaii-Hilo, a team known for its tennis talent, and also one that the Tritons trumped 5-0 last year to make it round of 16 in the NCAA Division II Men’s Tennis Championship — and this meeting was not much different.
The Tritons jumped out to an early lead, winning two of the three doubles matches. Molden and Spector defeated Hilo’s Jeremy Moitry and Dan Pollock, 8-5, at No. 1 doubles, while Swatt teamed up with Rubens to beat their opponents quickly, 8-2.
The first three matches in the lineup all ended in three-set victories for the Tritons. At No. 1, Swatt lost the first set, 4-6, to Moitry, but came back with a second set 6-4 win, and narrowly pulled out the match with a 7-5 win in the third set. At No. 2 singles, Molden lost a close first set, 5-7, but came back to overpower his opponent, 6-1, 6-2, in the next two sets.
At No. 3, Spector won a lopsided match, taking the first set 6-2, losing the second 2-6, and finishing off his opponent 6-2 for the win. Oijala, who played at No. 4 singles, won a quick 6-1, 6-1 match, and Meister, at No. 5, held off a second-set comeback by Hilo’s Samejima, winning his match, 6-1, 7-6.
The only other Hilo win came at No. 6 singles, in which Hilo’s Mitchel Gelina defeated Phan in a close 7-6, 6-4 match. The wins gave the Tritons a 7-2 victory over Hawaii-Hilo.
