Losing six-straight matchups to begin a season is usually a cause for concern, but for the UCSD men’s tennis team, optimism abounds.
Senior Brent Molden swept the Broncos’ Daniel Chang in his No. 1 singles match and teamed up with senior Steven Oechel for an 8-5 doubles win in the Tritons’ 9-0 victory on Feb. 26.
The Tritons captured their first victory of the season with a convincing 9-0 sweep of Cal Poly Pomona on Feb. 26, ending an otherwise winless February against decidedly daunting opponents. The team, which had played valiantly but fruitlessly for the greater part of the month, saw its hard work pay off in straight-set victories in dominant singles and strong doubles play.
No. 1 singles senior Brent Molden trounced the Broncos’ Daniel Chang in an assertive 6-0, 6-0 finish, while No. 2 sophomore Eric Rubens defeated Sebastian Torres (6-1, 6-1) in similar fashion. Sophomore transfer Ramesh Thondapu registered a 6-3, 6-2 win over Danny Tran, the only Broncos player to win more than four games.
In doubles play, senior Erik Oijala and sophomore Blake Meister put down Chang and Tyrone Wang’s effort, and cruised to an 8-2 win. In the closest match of the series, Molden and senior Steven Oechel, who recently came back from an injury, dealt Torres and Dustin Andolsen an 8-5 defeat. The No. 3 doubles team of Rubens and freshman Kazumi Negishi rounded out the sweep with an 8-3 win over Dan Evangelista and Eric Carlstrom.
Head coach Eric Steidlmayer, the winningest coach in UCSD men’s tennis history, was pleased that his team’s efforts had finally paid off.
“It was definitely good to get the first win,” Steidlmayer said. “We’ve been trying to get better by practicing with a purpose, and the last two weeks we’ve done that better.”
The Tritons’ impressive results against Pomona may be attributed to the team’s six previous matches, in which five of the opponents were top Division-I programs. The team competed against D-I forces such as UC Riverside, San Diego State and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The team only faced one other D-II team before its win, a great difference from the far easier schedule of the 2005 season. In fact, UCSD suffered only seven losses in the entire 2005 season, but many of the opponents were from D-II squads.
According to Steidlmayer, the plan to schedule matches against top-tier D-I teams was premeditated.
“We have a really young team this year, and we’re trying to get them seasoned and more experienced,” Steidlmayer said. “We’re playing teams with players that have been in tougher situations, and it’s getting us ready for the next months.”
Meister, who outshined Wang 6-1, 6-2, views the grueling schedule as a crucial way to gauge the team’s ability and raise the level of play.
“These teams will battle for every point in every game,” Meister said. “We knew it was going to be challenging from the beginning, and even though we lost those matches, we’re going in the right direction.”
This year, the Tritons’ schedule has fewer D-II opponents, and is markedly stocked with D-I foes such as Boston College, Gonzaga University and Yale.
Steidlmayer is hopeful the schedule will elevate his team’s skill and poise, and that the challenge will not demoralize the players.
“Hopefully they’ll look at it as something they’re learning from, something they’re getting better by experiencing,” Steidlmayer said. “I see us growing in confidence.”
Despite the uphill battle, the team hopes that the challenge will pay dividends come May, when the NCAA II West Regional tournament begins. If the Tritons are successful there, they will move on to the NCAA Championships in Kansas City, Miss. Last year, the Tritons reached the quarterfinals of the tournament, their best finish as a D-II team.
If last year’s results are any preview of this year’s campaign, the team has reason to be optimistic about its upcoming schedule.
“We had a tough stretch in the beginning, but now we have an idea of where we need to be,” Rubens said. “Now that everyone has an idea of what to expect, it will make our play a lot more focused.”
Steidlmayer hopes to match, if not improve, his team’s results from last year, but he acknowledges that there is always room for more progress.
“Where we’re at right now won’t get it done,” Steidlmayer said. “But if the guys take it upon themselves to improve, we’ll give ourselves a chance.”
