After missing the last five matches with a viral infection, OliverMaiberger made a Michael Jordan-esque return in leading the No. 32San Diego State men’s tennis team to a 4-3 victory over the No. 35Tulsa Golden Hurricane Friday afternoon at SDSU courts.
“Oliver is a very important player for our team,” sophomore FelixHardt said about his fellow countryman. “He is our No. 1 player andit was good for him to come back and play pretty good tennis.”
When he is back, it gives us a totally different look.”
Maiberger, who has not played a match in more than two weeks,looked sharp in his return to action, defeating Pawel Sebastyanski6-2, 6-4 in No. 1 singles. The junior from Germany also teamed withRyan Redondo to defeat Tulsa’s Dane McGregor and Shriranga Sudhakara8-4 in doubles action.
“Maiberger and Redondo had not played together in two weeks andthey defeated a nationally ranked doubles team,” head coach JohnNelson said.
Then Oliver turns around and defeats a ranked player in singles.It was
very, very impressive for him to do that.”
In other doubles action, the Aztecs duo of Hardt and ValentinoPest defeated Ryan Livesay and Dustin Taylor 8-6 to secure thedoubles point and give SDSU an early 1-0 lead.
Besides Maiberger’s triumphant return, the Aztecs took homevictories in the top three singles positions.
Hardt, who had played No. 1 in Maiberger’s absence, claimed arelatively easy 6-3, 6-0 straight set victory over the Hurricane’sLivesay in No. 3 singles.
“I felt very comfortable on the court,” Hardt said. “Coach movedme back to the No. 3 position and I think I played pretty well. I’msupposed to win at No. 3.”
After dropping consecutive matches against Air Force and UNLV,Pest bounced back with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over McGregor in No. 2singles. Pest’s win gave SDSU a 4-0 lead and secured a team victoryfor the Aztecs.
With the outcome of the dual match no longer in doubt, the rest ofthe
Aztecs did not fare as well. Travis Hasson, Gabe Coren, andRedondo all dropped their respective matches in three sets.
Preview
On Tuesday, SDSU will head down I-8 to face cross-town rival USD.With both teams ranked in the Top-45, the Toreros and Aztecs willsquare off for than just the city’s bragging rights.
“They are always very good and I know that they will be up forthat match,” Nelson said. “It’s a big match for them, so I know theywill be coming after us.”
Including USD, the Aztecs have just four matches left on theseason. They will face conference foes BYU and Utah next weekend andthen will host Pacific for their regular season finale.
