By Carlos ManzanilloStaff Writer
The San Diego State men’s tennis team defeated Princeton 6-1 overthe weekend to earn a split of their two-game home stand against theIvy League.
Just two days after being upset by Yale, the Aztecs rebounded witha much stronger performance against the Tigers. “It was adisappointing loss, because clearly we were a better team evenwithout our No. 1 player; I felt we should have beat them,” HeadCoach John Nelson said about the Yale defeat. “Its not really whathappens to you, but how you deal with it, and I felt that wedefinitely competed better against Princeton.”
For the second consecutive match, the Aztecs were forced to playwithout the services of Oliver Maiberger. Maiberger has been outnursing a viral infection.
Although Maiberger is the team’s No. 1 singles player, they didnot miss him on this occasion.
SDSU began the day winning all three doubles matches to claim thefirst point of the day. Because of Maiberger’s absence, Felix Hardtand Valentino Pest took over the No. 1 doubles slot and won easily8-3. Travis Hasson and Gabe Coren moved up to the No. 2 slot and alsotook care of business 8-2.
Meanwhile, Ryan Redondo teamed with Khalid Naffa and won 9-8 togive the team a clean sweep in doubles.
The singles matches took on much the same theme as everyone movedup a spot and played well. SDSU took home victories in the top fivesingles matches with four coming in straight sets.
SDSU is now 8-7 on the season and has seemed to benefit from thesplit.
“It was a good wake-up call in general,” Hardt said. “We found outhow much we still have to improve in our play.”
Rise to the Top
After their impressive performance at last week’s Blue GrayCollegiate Classic, the Aztecs jumped 15 spots in the latestIntercollegiate Tennis Association rankings and are currently rankedNo. 25 in the nation.
“I feel that we definitely deserve it; we have beaten some goodteams,” Hardt said.
The surging Aztecs have won five of their last seven, and whilethey currently sport an unimpressive 8-7 record, it has been thequality of their opponents that has gotten the pollsters’ attention.Six of their losses have come against teams ranked in the top-13,including close matches against No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 Illinois and No. 5Stanford (twice).
But you don’t get a top-25 ranking just based on your losses; thequality of Aztec victories has been just as impressive. All of theirwins have come against ranked opponents, including triumphs over thenNo. 8 SMU, No. 15 Virginia Commonwealth and No. 34 South Alabama.
Player of the Week
On the strength of his 2-0 record in singles and helping SDSUreach the semi-finals of the Blue Gray Classic, Ryan Redondo wasnamed Mountain West Conference Player of the Week for the periodending March 19.
Redondo’s play has been instrumental in the Aztecs’ resurgencethis season. The San Diego native has won six singles matches in arow and has posted a 10-1 record for the season. He also teams withMaiberger to form the nation’s No. 3 doubles team.
“The fact that he is driven and wants to become the best player hecan makes my job much easier,” Nelson said.
