—Compiled by Matthew Bain & Courtney Muller
Women’s tennis bounces back against Saint Mary’s
What a difference two days can make.
On Friday, the San Diego State women’s tennis team dropped its first match this season to No. 44 University of Washington. Despite a fantastic effort against a ranked program, the Aztecs left their home court empty-handed.
Two days later, the Aztecs shook off the disappointment to host an even better No. 40Saint Mary’s team. The Aztecs lost two of three lengthy doubles matches, giving Saint Mary’s the doubles point. Down 0-1 heading into singles play, the Aztecs needed to play their best tennis to beat the Gaels.
They did that and much more.
After losing their first sets, senior Alicia Aguilar, junior Laura Antonana Iriarte and freshman Tami Nguyen played mistake-free tennis to roar back and win their matches. Aguilar dominated her last two singles sets, 6-2, 6-0 and Iriarte won her last two, 6-4, 6-1. Nguyen dropped her first set 0-6, but outlasted her opponent 6-3, 6-2 in the final two sets.
The 3-1 Aztecs look to carry the momentum from this victory as they host No. 28 Arizona at 2 p.m. on Feb. 8 at the Aztec Tennis Center.
Men’s Tennis
On Feb. 2, the 64th ranked SDSU men’s tennis team traveled to No. 57 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The Aztecs beat Cal Poly 5-2 last year at the Aztec Tennis Center, but their winning trend would stop in San Luis Obispo. Mountain West Co-Men’s Tennis Player of the Week senior Derek Siddiqui and No. 123 Ranked sophomore Andranik Khachatryan won their doubles match, while sophomore Thorsten Bertsch defeated Marco Comuzzo 7-6 (6), 6-2. However, the rest of the matches went to Cal Poly, who beat the Aztecs 6-1.
The men’s team is 3-2 and will now face the Bulldogs at 2 p.m. this Friday in Fresno.
Water polo goes 2-0 on the weekend
The No. 7 San Diego State water polo team swam past the competition as it defeated Cal State San Bernardino and Cal State Bakersfield last weekend in the Lancer Mini Invite hosted by California Baptist University.
The Aztecs showed how deep their bench truly was as 10 players registered goals in the 17-3 victory against the Coyotes. Highlighting the offensive column were redshirt freshman two-meter Madeline Schwartz, senior utility Amber Pezzolla and sophomore-diver Anique Hermann, who all posted hat tricks.
SDSU’s defense was just as impressive as its offense, as the Aztecs held CSUSB to only three goals in four quarters. SDSU followed up the performance by defeating the Roadrunners with a convincing score of 10-6 to go 2-0 on the day. In the win against Bakersfield, redshirt freshman two-meter player Bailey Wickliffe had a breakout game for the Aztecs scoring three goals and bringing her season total to seven.
Wickliffe is a name to look for this season as she has earned the starting nod for the Aztec two-meter position and fills the role of the graduated All-American standout Meaghan Poland. Hermann is another player to watch this season, as she hopes to continue where she left off when she received an honorable mention All-America honor.
SDSU will play its first official home game at 3 p.m. this Thursday at the Aztec Aquaplex against the Hartwick Hawks. Admission to the match is free.
