Seniors Blake Meister and Eric Rubens are used to success as
a doubles team, coming off a 19-4 season and school-best Final Four finish a
year ago. The Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Americans trekked to
Mobile, Ala. and continued the success, taking home some heavy hardware during
the ITA National Championships, a prestigious tennis showcase that took place
from Oct. 11 to Oct. 14.
To begin their unprecedented run, the duo claimed the
Division II Men’s Doubles title, and then won the ITA Super Bowl of Small
College Tennis two days later, completing an impressive weekend. The win
clinched a spot in the ITA Division I Indoor Championships at Ohio State
University from Nov. 1 to Nov. 4, a tournament where the Triton combo will be the
only Division II representative in the draw.
The doubles team had to win all five of its matches over the
four days to earn a spot at the exclusive Division I tournament and according
to Meister, he and Rubens were running on all cylinders.
“We played great the entire tournament,” Meister said. “We
had to because there were some pretty close matches.”
In the D-II tournament, Rubens and Meister took out their
first round opponents, Joerg Ekkenga and Leos Jelinek of Valdosta State, by a
score of 7-6 (6), 7-6 (7). The win was especially satisfying because it was
Valdosta State that took down UCSD in the Final Four of the Division II Team
Tournament last season.
Following that victory, the Tritons’ top doubles pair
defeated Ryan Hudson and Juan Nunez of Abilene Christian University of Abilene,
Texas, 7-5, 7-5, to put themselves in the finals. In the championship match,
the top-seeded doubles team took home their first title by getting past
Dagoberto Darezzo and Edward Horne of the University of South Carolina-Aiken.
The 7-6 (2), 6-3, 10-8 victory was “a match we definitely could have lost,”
Meister said. Blake added, “Eric came up huge during the late stages of the
match, hitting a big serve at 8-8, then a great return at 9-8 to clinch the win
for us.”
As champions of the Division II Doubles tournament, Rubens
and Mesiter were automatically drawn into the ITA Super Bowl of Small College
Tennis where the doubles champions from Division II, III, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and
junior colleges came together with a spot at the Division I Indoors on the
line. First, UCSD’s top doubles team faced the Division III champs, Filip
Marinkovic and Andrew Thompson from Middlebury College in Vermont, and came out
on top with a 6-3, 3-6, 10-3 victory. Rubens and Meister were able to win their
second trophy of the trip with a 7-6 (6), 7-5 win over the Fresno Pacific
University team of Matt Carroll and Vicente Joli.
Rubens and Meister ended last season as the nation’s fourth
best doubles team, according to the Fila collegiate tennis rankings. They are
determined to improve on that standing, having already beaten one of the teams
that finished ahead of them last year.
Meister has enjoyed his opportunity to play alongside Rubens
and hopes the pair’s cohesion can propel them toward a better finish than last
year.
“Last year, it was awesome to finish fourth,” Meister said.
“But as seniors we relish the chance to play together again and improve on that
ranking.”
With their tournament victories, Rubens and Meister will
almost assuredly land as the top men’s doubles team in Division II when the
rankings come out early next month.
Bijan Moallemi also took part in the ITA National
Championships as UCSD’s sole singles player. Moallemi lost his first round
match 7-5, 6-1 to top-seeded Stefan Borg of Drury University in Springfield,
Mo., but rebounded to win the consolation bracket and fifth place with two
hard-fought victories. The first was a come-from-behind victory over Robert
Jendeleund of Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Ga., by a 4-6,
6-3, 6-4 score, and was followed by a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win over William Jacome of
the University of Nebraska-Kearney.
From Oct. 26 to Oct. 28 the top four players on the men’s
tennis team will travel to Berkeley to participate in the Chandler Cup, a
competition that will also feature Division I competition. While Rubens and
Meister will head to Ohio after the Chandler Cup, the rest of the UCSD squad
will compete in the annual Southern California Intercollegiate Tournament in Los
Angeles from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4.
