TENNIS ‘mdash; The Tritons embarked on their longest excursion of the season, traveling to Colorado for three matches last weekend to push their record back to 10-10 overall. UCSD has had its share of struggles this season, but with a 4-2 record in its last six matches, the Tritons are finally beginning to hit their stride. With the regular season quickly coming to a close, head coach Eric Steidlmayer would like nothing more than to see his team begin rounding into form.
‘I’ve really been able to find a consistent lineup that I can turn to, and that’s been the biggest key for our team’s success lately,’ Steidlmayer said. ‘With regionals coming up, we need our team to be approaching its peak if we hope to compete with some of the best teams in our area.’
The Tritons began their road trip against Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Colo., early Saturday morning, blowing out the Cougars 9-0. Many of Colorado Christian’s players were battling injuries as well as food poisoning, causing the team to default the third doubles and sixth singles matches to UCSD before they even started. Two other matches, the third and fifth singles, were completed shortly after they began. The other five matches that played to completion weren’t any more suspenseful as the Tritons dominated from start to finish.
UCSD’s top doubles team of senior Kazumi Negishi and sophomore Erik Elliott sent a statement early by routing Colorado Christian’s freshman Matthew Cooper and junior Andrew Wren by an 8-0 score. Negishi was just as impressive in his singles match at the No. 1 spot, defeating senior Clint Walder 6-1, 6-0. Freshman Brandon Stevenson and sophomore Armaun Emami teamed up at the No. 2 doubles spot for an 8-3 win. Sophomore Naveen Dixit and freshman Jake Fellow each won singles matches 6-0, 6-0 completing the sweep.
Later that day, UCSD traveled to Denver to play Mesa State College. Once again, it was UCSD’s doubles teams that set the tone. At No. 1 doubles, Negishi and Elliott defeated junior Jordan Chomko and junior Nick Provenza 8-5. The second and third doubles teams won their matches 8-2, giving the Tritons a 3-0 lead.
UCSD continued its dominance in singles, dropping only one set over the six matches. Freshman William McCall had the most convincing win of the day, beating freshman William Kellar 6-0, 6-1. Dixit was the only one who had to battle, completing the clean sweep for UCSD with a hard-fought 7-6, 3-6, 7-1 win over junior Rashad Khamis.
‘We’ve got two matches left in the season, and we need to continue the momentum we were able to get in Colorado,’ Negishi said. ‘With the way our team has been playing in practice, I expect that we can accomplish that and feel good about going into regionals.’
The Tritons are set to finish the regular season this week as they face two more matches on the road. On Friday afternoon they will head north to face Sonoma State University. The road trip will continue the next day with a tilt against UC Santa Cruz.
Readers can contact Neil Joshi at [email protected].