The Tritons have only recorded one team loss this season, a 2-7 loss against No. 15 Grand Canyon University on Feb. 10 at the Grand Canyon Invitational, where they were trounced in the doubles component.
But on Tuesday, March 6, against the Wildcats, the Tritons showed strong from the start. Having just returned from the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships, UCSD tooks wins in all three doubles matches.
The No. 1 doubles match pitted UCSD’s Austin West and Devon Sousa — a pair that qualified for the ITA National Small College Championships last October — against Villanova’s Thomas O’Brien and Kelly Donaldson. West and Sousa struggled at the start of the match, as O’Brien and Donaldson managed to break serve early. Momentum swung to the Tritons in the seventh set, when UCSD broke the Villanova pair’s service game, taking the game and ultimately the match 8-4.
“We had a little bit of erratic play in the beginning,” UCSD assistant coach Timmer Willing said. “It was a bit of a back-and-forth at the start. They hada few bigger hitters, but they did make a lot more errors. We were a little bit uneasy at first, and we took a little longer to gain control of the match, but we ultimately did by the end.”
On the other end of the Northview Triton tennis courts, UCSD’s No. 3 doubles pairing of Sam Ling and Junya Yoshida won their match 8-5.
The newly formed No. 2 doubles team of Jason Wall and Kona Luu overcame an early deficit to take their match, 9-7.
“It makes a big difference when you win all three doubles,” Willing said. “It leaves a lot more room for error there. It lets everybody relax a little bit and not have so much pressure on winning or losing.”
It turned out that the Tritons didn’t need the early lead to take the win. UCSD proceeded to take wins in all but one of their six singles matches. No. 1 singles Chapman Chan topped O’Brien with scores of 2-6, 6-2, 11-9, while No. 2 Junya Yoshida also won his bout in three sets.
West secured the No. 3 singles with two 6-0 sets against Villanova’s Ryan Peyton, while underclassmen Max Jiganti and Luu also took their matches in two sets. Villanova’s only win on the day came in the No. 5 singles bout, with Tim Abbracciamento overtaking senior Sam Ling.
The following day, the Tritons faced Western New Mexico University, taking a 7-2 victory over the Mustangs.
“[Villanova] had some strong players that matched up really well against us, and they just got the better of us in a couple of those matches,” UCSD assistant coach Timmer Willing said. “But overall everyone took charge early.”
The Tritons swept in the doubles component, and took four of their six matches in singles competiiton.
No. 1 singles Chan, No. 2 singles Yoshida, No. 4 singles Jiganti and No. 6 singles Yuu all won in straight matches.
No. 3 singles West lost 6-3, 6-4, while No. 5 singles Ling dropped a tight 7-6, 7-5 match.
The Tritons continue their homestand. Their next dual competition is against No. 21 Hawaii-Pacific this Saturday, March 10 at 10:00 am.
