San Diego State men’s tennis shut out Eastern Washington 7-0 on March 26 at the Aztec Tennis Center.
Head coach Gene Carswell said how the win came from the mental toughness the players had during the matches.
“It’s never easy beating a Division I team 7-0, so I am really proud of the guys for the effort they put in,” Carswell said. “(We had) a couple of championship tiebreakers we had to play, and that shows you the strength and the level of these guys. They pushed us all the way to the end.”
Carswell said the win was good on both sides.
“(I am) happy with the singles and happy with what we did in doubles,” he said. “We’re gaining momentum.”
In singles’ matches, SDSU senior Sander Gjoels-Andersen beat EWU senior Jeremy Field, 3-6, 6-3 and 10-0. Also, junior Fabian Rosendorf won 6-2, 5-7 and 10-7 over junior Mikayel Khachatryan.
In other singles’ action, sophomore Ignacio Martinez emerged victorious over freshman Manuel Brice, 6-4 and 6-2. Aztecs junior Arnaud Restifo outlasted sophomore Martin Bats 6-0 and 6-1 in consecutive sets. Junior David Hough beat freshman Wout Doumen, 6-1 and 6-4.
On the doubles side, Andersen and Martinez beat Field and Khachatryan, 6-2, and Aztec juniors Rafael Gonzalez Almazan and Restifo pulled out the win over Bats and Balce, 6-1.
The Scarlet and Black have won three consecutive games, dating back to the final two games they played in the San Diego Spring Invitational last weekend.
The tough scheduling did not stop them from pulling out the victory on Tuesday.
“Even though they had a lot of tennis from the (weekend), they came out with a very workman-like mentality and got the job done today,” Carswell said. “My hats off to them; they did a really great job.”
The three-game winning streak has given the team the opportunity to trust each other, especially entering the final portion of the year.
“They are starting to believe in themselves and a little bit of belief goes a long way; they’re starting to see they can compete with anyone and confidence is a great thing to have,” Carswell said. “Winning starts becoming a habit–you start expecting to do it and that’s what we’re starting to feel right now.”
Despite playing four games in five days, Carswell attributes the success, regardless of the volume of games, to the team’s grit.
“It’s not easy to take on that much tennis,” Carswell said. “We’re showing that we are pretty resilient; we’re a pretty tough team; we’re going to keep showing up in practice and continuing this ascent towards the top of the Mountain West, hopefully by the end of the year.”
Up next, the Aztecs travel to Logan, Utah to take on the Aggies on March 29.
Carwell said the team’s momentum will hope to continue heading into Mountain West Conference play.
“Utah State would be a formidable opponent; they were last year’s conference champions,” he said. “Playing them on their home turf, and especially playing them indoors, we’re going to have our work cut out for us, we’re going to have to be mentally tough, but (our) guys are up to task, and hopefully I have some good news to report when we get back.”
