One hour after the announcement of the San Diego State women’s tennis schedule, the SDSU athletics department announced both women’s and men’s tennis teams have paused all team-related in-person activities for the next 14 days due to COVID-19.
In a Feb. 12 statement, SDSU athletics announced the pause out of “an abundance of caution for the health and safety of the department’s student-athletes.”
The statement also said that all matches scheduled until Feb. 25 have been postponed.
This is the first instance of a stoppage of play for any program. Some, such as the men’s basketball team, have had some games canceled but have yet to experience an extended pause in play.
Players on both teams are now expected to quarantine and enter coronavirus testing protocol as they await play to be reopened.
Men’s tennis head coach Gene Carswell told The Daily Aztec his players will be keeping to themselves to avoid the chance of catching the virus.
“For myself and my players, we will continue to be in a testing protocol for COVID,” Carswell said. “We’’ll have to isolate and we’ll go through this process to ensure the safety of the student-athletes, our staff and those working on campus.”
While the statement made no indication as to why the decision to postponement was made, Carswell told The DA that a player came into contact with an individual who was symptomatic with the coronavirus.
“Through contact tracing, we had an individual on our team come into contact with a person who was symptomatic,” Carswell said. “That is what put us on pause at the moment.”
The women’s matches on Feb. 20 and Feb. 21 against Cal State Fullerton and Hawaii have been postponed. The next four matches for the men have been postponed as well.
It is yet to be determined if the games will be rescheduled or outright canceled.
