On the men’s side, the Tritons extended their losing streak to seven games, as they fell 3–6 to the No. 16 Wildcats. Sophomore Max Jiganti, along with doubles partner senior Sam Ling, were the only Tritons to take three consecutive wins in the Tritons’ three-match Invitational last weekend in Pensacola, Florida. Against the Wildcats, the sophomore was the only Triton to take wins in both the singles component and doubles component.
The pair of Jiganti and Ling downed Abilene Christian’s Guilherme Gesser and Michael Morris 8–5 in the No. 3 doubles bout. The Tritons fell in the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches.
Down 2–1, the Tritons could only manage two wins in the singles competition.
Jiganti won the No. 2 singles match against the Wildcats’ Nick Plum, with scores of 6–1, 1–6 and 6–4. Sophomore Devon Sousa pulled through for the Tritons, playing in the No. 6 singles position, defeating Michael Morris with scores of 6–2, 2–6 and 6–3.
The Triton women did not fare any better, falling 1–8 to the No. 6 Wildcats.
UCSD went without winning a single set in the singles competition. The only match the Tritons were able to take was in the No. 3 doubles match, between junior Katie Mulloy and sophomore Laura Wilke. Mulloy and Wilke took their match 8–4 against Abilene Christian’s Jaclyn Walker and Emily Conrad.
“[Abilene Christian’s] ranked seventh in the country, and we actually played pretty well against them,” UCSD head coach Liz Laplante said. “We weren’t really going into the match necessarily looking to win, but to just hopefully win some matches.”
The following day, Monday, April 16, the No. 21 Tritons conceded another loss, this time to unranked Concordia.
Mulloy and Wilke came through again in the No. 3 doubles match, taking an 8–2 win against Concordia’s Ellie Johnson and Ulrike Hahn. However, the No. 1 doubles pair of junior Melissa Breisacher and senior Jacquelyn Davis fell 8–4, while UCSD’s No. 2 doubles team of freshman Melinda Chu and sophomore Tara Vanooteghem dropped their match 8–5.
The Tritons managed to take two wins in the singles competition, with Vanooteghem winning the No. 3 match 6–4 and 6–2 and Mulloy cementing the No. 4 win with scores of 6–3 and 6–0.
“It was a great day for [Mulloy]. She’s a senior, she’s always got three or four injuries at a time, and she played a great match to win that singles battle.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams will return to competition this Friday, April 20. The men will stay in Southern California, where they will face Point Loma on the road.
The women will travel up to Turlock, where the Tritons will face off against the Warriors for the second time in two weeks.
“We haven’t had a great year as far as our wins and losses go, but we’ve really improved a lot,”
Laplante said. “We’re just hoping to end the season with two or three wins, and build from there for next season.”
