Against Concordia Irvine, Erik Elliott continued his strong season as the No. 1 singles player with a comeback victory against Kareem Berdai, 0-6, 6-2, 6-0. Chapman Chan, Junya Yoshida, Vincent Nguyen and Austin West all won their singles matches to secure the match for the Tritons.
“It was a good win, getting the rust off,” head coach Eric Steidlmayer said.
Elliott and West won their doubles match in thrilling fashion, pulling out the victory 9-8. Armaun Emami and Max Jiganti added another doubles victory 8-3, to give the Tritons seven victories in nine matches on the day.
“We’re doing better than we’ve ever done,” Chan said.
On Tuesday, the Tritons moved to 17-0, defeating Point Loma Nazarene 6-3. Elliott continued his sparkling play and won the No. 1 singles match, 7-5, 6-7, 7-6, while Nguyen, West and Jiganti also won their singles matches. West remained undefeated in singles matches.
Elliott and West won their doubles match 8-6, and the Emami and Jiganti pair contributed a doubles victory from the third spot at 8-5.
“That’s a good team over there and it was nice to get a win to start off this stretch of four matches in five days,” Steidlmayer said.
The Tritons finish up the regular season this week at Rohnert Park with the Sonoma State Invitational. Starting Thursday, the Tritons play Hawaii Hilo, Grand Canyon and Sonoma State over three days. The team is currently ranked No. 10 overall and No. 1 in the NCAA West Region.
The UCSD women’s team — ranked No. 17 in the country — fell to Point Loma Nazarene last week, but came back to defeat Cal State Los Angeles 5-4 on Saturday.
The match against Point Loma Nazarene was one to forget for the Tritons, as they lost 0-9. No. 1 singles player Taskeen Bains missed her singles match due to a foot injury.
“We certainly didn’t get the result we were hoping for today, that’s for sure,” head coach Liz LaPlante said. “We were getting ready for our match on Saturday, but that’s a much-improved team and they were ready to play.”
On Saturday, the Tritons defeated Cal State LA 5-4 at home to improve to 9-7 on the season. Melissa Breisacher, Samantha Yeung, Katie Mulloy and Jacquelyn Davis all won their singles matches for the comeback victory after the team managed just one doubles victory, which came from Cindy Dao and Davis 8-4.
Yeung played the final match of the day and won to clinch the team victory.
“[Yeung] played great under pressure, the best I’ve ever seen her play, against a very strong opponent,” LaPlante said.
The Tritons finish up the regular season on Thursday against Sonoma state, before NCAA II West Regionals first and second rounds start on May 1.
Readers can contact Jonathan Kaslow at [email protected].
